Rejection has undesirable consequences
Rejection of the idea that machines can be conscious leads is more closely to solipsism and epiphenomenalism (see detailed text).
Rejection of the idea that machines can be conscious leads is more closely to solipsism and epiphenomenalism:
Solipsism: because if we deny consciousness to a robot that can do everything we can do, we have less reason for claiming that other people (with equivalent behaviour) are conscious as well.
Epiphenomenalism: because if we deny consciousness to a robot that can do everything we can do, we deny that a mind causes such behaviours, and then we must admit that human behaviour might not have mental causes as well.
Dennis Thompson (1965).