It&#x27;s interesting that both &quot;thought experiments&quot; take essentially the same form - layer a fully working consciousness (defined either by being able to pass the Turing test or by actually emulating a brain on the physical level) onto a bizarre and improbable substrate that, strictly speaking, is too small to contain it; then gawp at the improbability of the arrangement you&#x27;ve constructed.<p>Dennett has a good rebuttal to this whole class - he notes that is not at all intuitive that a <i>brain</i> should be conscious. Open up someone&#x27;s skull and look at the pulsing meat, and try and convince yourself that there&#x27;s a mental universe in there. You may as well say &quot;it&#x27;s just stupid atoms bumping around - how could that be conscious?&quot;<p>You either believe in a) supernatural souls, b) the mystical consciousness-granting power of meat, or c) minds are independent of their substrate.