Implications of rare neurological disorders and perceptual errors in natural and synthetic consciousness

Recent theories on natural and synthetic consciousness overlook the geometric structure necessary for awareness of 3-dimensional space, as strikingly illustrated by left-neglect disorder. Furthermore, awareness of 3-dimensional space entails some surprisingly tenacious optical illusions, as demonstrated by an experiment in the text. Awareness of linear time is also crucial and complex. As a consequence, synthetic consciousness cannot be realized by simply intercomnecting a large number of electronic circuits constructed from ordinary chips and transistors. Since consciousness is a subjective experience, there is no sufficient condition for consciousness that can be experimentally confirmed. The most we can hope for is agreement on the necessary conditions for consciousness. Toward that end, this paper reviews some relevant clinical phenomena.