Quantum consciousness...

[Angrboda]

I would define consciousness in terms of its functionality.

The function of consciousness is to allow matter to subjectively experience what itself and its surroundings are like.  If you want it not to mean that, then you should choose a word that doesn't mean that.  Redefining an idea out of existence isn't a good way to deal with whatever it was the word used to talk about.

You've got to be joking. There is no set understanding of what the function of consciousness is. It's a subject of great debate in the philosophy of mind, ranging from the position that it has no function -- epiphenominalism -- to views that it is integral to the formation of behaviors. Attempting to argue that there is a standard usage of the term using a definition you pulled from your ass is the height of cheek. And I'm highly skeptical of your thesis that the "function" of consciousness is to allow a subjective experience of "what it's like to be." Under that view, it's function is none; it does no work whatsoever in the economy of the organism. Regardless, your definition leaves out that we have things like "understanding the meaning of words" as experiences of consciousness, and the ability to imagine things, and the ever present awareness of mood (e.g. sadness or happiness) which is an aspect of consciousness. Your so-called "definition" leaves far too much out. It's nothing more than an intuition pump, designed to prime us to imagine a familiar experience, consciousness, and fill in the details on our own from our own experience. As such, it's not so much a definition of function as it is a placeholder for the reader's own subjective experience.

I don't agree that consciousness' function is to allow subjective experience of itself and its surroundings. There is no such sensation as "being what it's like to be the skin that I'm touching." The "being" of a skin cell is no different from the "being" of a muscle cell. We have sensations because our tissues are innervated with nerve cells, and these nerve cells transduce one form of energy into another, an electrical impulse that is then interpreted by the brain to construct an experience. This "what it's like to be" nonsense is founded on the intuition that I am my body. But consciousness is effectively exterior to the body, not synonymous with it. That's merely a feeling we have about the body. It's a construct. In experiments with blind subjects, they have placed a grid of tactile initiators against a patch of the skin, and fed the array of tactile prods with input from a light sensing grid. The associated experience that the subjects had was akin to visual reception, not tactile reception. So which is it, does skin feel itself to be like the sensation of touch, or the sensation of vision? It's neither. There is no such thing as a "what it's like to be." That's just a metaphor and an intuition pump.