I´ll give it to you that you seem to have a good overview over the goings-on in that scientific area... but what do you actually say? That consciousness is a function of complexly organized matter?
You haven´t addressed my earlier point of "WHERE does the impulse to stimulate that area come from?". Is there a scientific position to that question?
IMO, the idea of "consciousness as a function of complexly organized matter"... well, this idea can be confronted with the exact same questions as Evolutionary Theory: how likely is it that all these phenomena are the result of chance, of mutation - selection: things like the tongue of the woodpecker... amphibians evolving out of fish... all that is implausible. And similarly implausible is it that "consciousness is a function of complexly organized matter", it just doesn´t add up well, it leaves a lot to be desired, in explanatory value.
But look... for all the transhumanistic endeavors... I feel that there is one very simple question that is never addressed: WHO T* WANTS THAT. Who wants to live like that!!?? So I´ll be superior as a man-machine so t* what... nobody wants to live like that. Interestingly, this argument also refers to some "soft" factors that are not easily nameable... and IMO it´s this very phenomenon of these "soft" factors that prove the mechanistic, deterministic view wrong.
Lastly... here another, IMO, interesting idea... approach... thought-experiment: we have started to replace parts of humans with artificial parts: hips, knees, cardiac valves etc.: so...: could we build a human in laboratory? If we add neuron to neuron: will a human brain result?
For me... that´s a very uncomfortable thought. In a way, I have to admit that yes, I think, adding enough neurons together, a brain would result... which, I guess, would say that yes, consciousness is just a result of complexly organized matter.
The only thing that I can say to that is that I don´t like the idea. Also, nobody would like to be that person. Nobody would like to be the result of technical production. People want a mother and a father.
So... not sure eventually what to say... but sure of that I would not like a world of artificial transhumanism. And this preference... that is inherent in me... and that´s perhaps the preference of all humans... maybe that in itself already decides the question? I.e.: there will never be transhumanism because we don´t like it? And the fact that we don´t like it is the consequence of that we just simply are not biological machines?
Aside from genetic and environmental factors, there is also an element of random chance in human thought just like there is random chance in all physical phenomenon.
And we already had transhumanism even during the rise of the Christendom from 500-1400 because the industrial civilizations of Europe already had prosthetics such as glasses, ear trumpets, peg legs, and dial operated hands.
In fact the industrial civilizations of Europe and Asia had average lifespans of 50 years compared the the average lifespans of only 20 years with the tribal societies of the Jews, Africans, and Native Americans because food, nutritional supplements, and medicine was mass produced using draft animals, farming tools, quern stones, grain silos, saltworks, smokehouses, filter presses, and factory mills.
Simply having access to a wide variety of nutrients and medicine can enhance human performance through phenotypic plasticity, and this is not to mention that humans applied selective breeding on living organisms and even ourselves to enhance our quality using the manipulation of genes.
The Eurasians who descended from the steppes of Mongolia are conquerors by nature and the religions of Europe and Asia refer to people as holy soldiers, i.e. Christian Soldiers, and use terms such as holy war to motivate people to conquest and to become as powerful as possible.
I believe that heaven is a great allegory for people's desire to possess eternal life and unlimited power, but we are already becoming immortalized by uploading our thoughts into communications systems an becoming more and more powerful through our scientific and technological advances.
This is why the empires of Europe and Asia conquered vast tracks of land especially during the colonial era from 1415-1945 because we believe only in power.
By the 1400's, the West and the East were ready to bear the full weight of their industrial might on the Americas, Southern Africa, Asia, and Australia. The enhanced physical and mental performance of the Europeans and Asians because of their use of nutritional supplements and medicine and the use of gunpowder and rocket weapons, mass produced in factories, gave the European and Asian Empires an overwhelming advantage in colonizing other territories. Here is a list of territories colonized by the European and Asian Empires:
European Empires:
Viking Empire:
Iceland and Greenland (during the 800s)
Spain:
South America and the Philippine Archipelago
Portugal:
South America
UK:
Parts of North America, Malaysia, India, Southern Africa and Australia
France:
Parts of North America, Khmer, and Southern Africa
The Netherlands:
Indonesia, and Parts of Southern Africa
Germany:
Parts of Southern Africa
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Asian Empires:
India:
Kalinga (in 260 BCE), and Sri Lanka (in 1017)
Islamic Caliphate:
Egypt, Persia, Byzantium, Northern Africa, Spain, Portugal, Malaysia, Indonesia, Brunei, Mindanao, Palawan, and Coron (during the 600s)
Russia:
Eastern Europe and Northern Asia (Specifically the Kingdoms of Astrakhan, Kazan, and Sibir)
China:
Vietnam, Tibet, Mongolia, Manchuria, Korea, Taiwan, Hainan, Hong Kong, Singapore, and Pangasinan
Japan:
Hokkaido (during the 600s), Shikoku, Kyushu, Ryukyu, and an attempted invasion of Korea