Here's the thing: this has actually happened already. Eventually, all of the cells of our bodies, even all of our atoms, get replaced by new ones. In that sense, we're like the Ship of Theseus. — Arcane Sandwich

That was my first thought, and then it occurred to me that it also happens that the brain is slowly removed and not replaced, and that is called dementia, Creutzfeldt-Jakob, and the like. And far into the process, it seems as if one is still perfectly conscious, even though one has lost one's history, one's habits, one's personality, and one's relationships.

Almost as if every brain were either an Adam or an Eve computing machine and fundamentally identical except in the programming and memory, and consciousness is part of the sameness, not part of the individuality.

The data we can collect is the brain activity but not Qualia itself. I think it is feasible in the future to tell what sort of experience a person has from this data but we cannot possibly collect Qualia.

The data we can collect is the brain activity but not Qualia itself. I think it is feasible in the future to tell what sort of experience a person has from this data but we cannot possibly collect Qualia. — MoK

I agree. And how do you get around the inverted spectrum problem? Suppose brain activity xyz feels like qualia xyz to me. I can never know what that qualia will be like to you, so when I record brain activity xyz and someone uploads it into their brain, I can never be sure what kind of experience they're having.

Very correct. :up:

I dunno

Almost as if every brain were either an Adam or an Eve computing machine and fundamentally identical except in the programming and memory, and consciousness is part of the sameness, not part of the individuality. — unenlightened

"consciousness is part of the sameness" makes a lot of sense of various phenomenological investigations -- how else could we verify if the descriptions of consciousness are true, applicable, good, whatever -- or not -- other than believing consciousness is sameness rather than difference?