Seeing red

[The Grand Nudger]

I'd say that if the brain represents a chaotic system whose job is to perform digital functions, then as you pulled neurons you'd lose "resolution," leading at some point to so much noise in the system that the digital functions could no longer be reliably performed, resulting in some total system failure at a critical mass.

That's going to happen in an orderly system as well.  We see it in digital devices.

If the brain cannot be represented by logic gates, however, then I'd expect a gradual decrease in function from Einstein down to earthworm-- like a dimmer switch rather than an on/off switch, as chaos should be (at least it seems to me in this moment of pure speculation) fractal.

That's also going to happen if it -can- be represented by logic gates. We see it in analog devices.

This is important for your model of ideas, because the digital function of the brain might reasonably be simulated by any physical structure (say a computer), but a chaotic or analog function might not be reproducible in any manner without an actual brain.  Alternately, ANY sufficiently chaotic AI system might be intrinsically conscious, if it is in fact that chaos in which the ghost in the gears resides.

As a fellow LOL player I'm horrified that you failed to recall a little thing called RNG. If the ghost, as you put it, resides in the chaos, there's a circuit for that. Thing is, in comp mind, there is no "ghost" -at all-, not even poetically. No "presence" behind the eyes, just the the gears...you see what I mean? There's nothing residing "in there". There isn't even an "in there" in which to reside.