consciousness?

[The Grand Nudger]

I assure you I am capable of building a circuit that has absolutely no use to us but nevertheless performs a staggering array of functions. hehehe. The use of a function (as it relates to us) is something we invest that function with, not an inherent property of that function. We have to understand the gate, identify the problem, envision a way in which the gate can resolve the problem - or we could, if we wanted, just throw a billion random gates at a problem and see which one returns the correct result (then leverage that without ever caring to see -how- it solved the problem). We leverage the properties of functions to give those functions use. There are an uncountable number of functions operating out in the world - two rocks can function like a variety of gates ,but they have no use to us, because we have not invested them with it -yet. As you mentioned, a complicated electronic device could easily be a paperweight - and with no paper - even that is useless. Designations of use or usefulness in circuits (and many things) first begins by postulating or invoking an operator (input), then identifying the task (function), finally describing the hypothetical or demonstrable resolution to that task in light of the operator and what we hope to achieve by it (output/register/memory/interface).

An operating system does leverage the relationship between gates in series, and those gates are required in that series for any specific OS to be installed or to function properly, but another amusing thought is that no particular series of gates is positively required to make a non-specific OS "do work" - the OS can be written for any configuration of gates one cares to cobble together, even if you "designed" it by throwing darts at a wall. It will have quirks and tics, it may not function "properly" (depending on your benchmark) in one area and it may function fantastically in another. It might not even be all that sturdy to talk about a "blank" system with no OS, as physics -is- an OS for the movement and pathing of electrons across a circuit board. It tells a signal, for example "if a resists, do b". A heady mix of efficiency and waste. Remind anyone of anything?

(edit for more interesting shit- as far as we can tell our neurons are arranged, structured, and function in a way entirely indistinguishable from and/nand gates - which is telling - because and/nand gates in series are incredibly powerful tools for processing information and executing complex functions - all tasks we have identified can be accomplished with just this gate - we might envision a more elaborate or efficient gate for any particular task...but simplicity, duplication, and redundancy seem to be biological hallmarks. Why -and how- would our biology build such a gate when the and/nand handles that function- and many others already simply by duplication in series? To save space I suppose, but there's plenty of it to work with inside of our skulls - though we could conceive of a purpose built "brain" utilizing the same structural materials with more specific gates being orders of magnitude smaller while achieving the same level of function)