A note on AI consciousness: Before anyone gets to discussing AI consciousness, it should be understood that no one understands human consciousness, even in its fundamental aspect.

That's a strong claim, but the demonstration of it comes from anesthesiology. First note that even the "engineering" of it is so poorly understood that a dedicated specialist is required to administer anesthesia during surgery.

Wikipedia's article is excruciatingly long but manages to avoid the simplest of characterizations of the science of anesthesia: scientists know that it works, but they do not know at all how it works.

In about a decade since I first learned this, I have only heard it mentioned one other time. It's yet another one of those "informational black holes" that the entire culture gets steered around.

Think of it like this: if you discover that putting your cell phone in a microwave means that it won't ring when you call it, that is no demonstration that you understand anything at all about the science and technology of either cell phones or microwaves.

Even in that trivial case, virtually everyone would jump to the wrong conclusion unless they already knew otherwise. Not all microwaves block all cell phone signals.

Bonus: The "History" section of that Wikipedia page mentions that the first demonstration of anesthesia took place at Massachusetts General Hospital and involved a dentist named William Morton and a surgeon named John Warren. Next to the text is a painting by Robert C. Hinckley illustrating the momentous event.

Well, surprise or maybe not surprise: MA General is in Boston, next to Salem. Morton, Warren, and even Hinckley are all Salem Witch names.

Double Bonus: I haven't covered the Mortons before so it might not be immediately recognizable, but I'll just mention as one example the 22nd Vice President of the United States, Levi Parsons Morton. Yes, those Parsons.