I’m a materialist, and I got that way through Marxist texts not the “new atheists”.

Fine, if you were using it that way, let’s look at that aspect.

The “unknown” of human consciousness is entirely a product of people refusing to define what they mean by the word.

You can find many definitions for consciousness, but the second you stop being vague and actually get concrete about what you mean when you use that word the mystery goes away.

AI can match the definition of consciousness, but when people switch definitions multiple times or refuse to give one from the outset it will be impossible to show AI meeting it.

Actually pick one definition, don’t try and worm your way out of that definition or blame me because you forgot to add a part, and yes there’s going to be examples of machines with consciousness.

How this usually works is people make excuses, like “it’s hard to articulate” so that they never get to that point. Then they can stay feeling special, and no one can ever change their beliefs about it.