Does it follow that if consciousness is an emergent phenomenon, that any set of materials that behaves as though it were conscious is conscious?
The risk of a future of robot slavery
If consciousness is emergent from physical properties then claiming that a different set of physical properties does not have consciousness when it takes in information and acts upon it in a similar fashion is like arguing that certain humans are "philosophical zombies". We need to be careful as we advance AI. At some point we are creating PEOPLE and if we don't treat them as people we are practicing slavery. And if we enslave others we risk devaluing each other.
Posted by: MasturDbtor
Emergent phenomena is inadequate .
The emergent phenomenon has no explanatory relevancy for consciousness. Essentially, emergent phenomenon is the same as physical determinism. Consciousness has characteristics and properties that seem to be non determined. If consciousness cannot be explained by physical cause/effect determinism, emergent phenomenon cannot explain consciousness. Ergo, your question seems to be irrelevant.
Posted by: charleeAny set of materials that behaves as though it were conscious is not necessarily conscious.
A person in a movie acts as though he is conscious, but in reality he is just a moving picture. Things that appear to be conscious are not necessarily conscious. It is famous difficult to determine if something is actually conscious at all. We may never know the answer to this question.