That person's argument is borderline insane to me - a severe lack of knowing what is unknown, a reverence of current best-models (regards modern science, including neurology - yet, open minded investigations beyond are also a requisite here.) And the pompousness is what truly boggles my mind ("Its silly to believe this, now.) A look in the mirror would suffice to say the least...

Anyway, thank you for a great answer and conversation throughout this thread.

Regards neural networks, parroting and the emulation of intelligence (or the difference between an emulation and the "real thing"):

Well, somewhat like you say, we cannot propose a valid comparison from one to the other without an understanding of one (consciousness) or both. It's fascinating that there are some open, valid and pressing questions about what / how the output of this new wave of software is concretized (from foundational, semi-statistical algorithms in this case.)

Yes, I do agree neurons have something to do with the "final output". But this is a subsection of the problem - organic neurons is-an/are order(s) of magnitude in complexity beyond what the tricky "parrot" is up to. Moreso, these components perform very different functionally - the known functions of the neuron compared to ANN, backprop etc. The entire stack.)

P.S: One interesting theory I like to simulate and/or entertain is that every organic cell in the body has something to do with the final output of consciousness.