We believe the idea that software can reproduce consciousness, or more specifically, any type of qualia, to be an obviously absurd and mistaken idea.

Computers represent information as numbers, in a binary format. One arbitrary pattern of ones and zeros could represent green while a different pattern could represent red. This representation is abstract and very different from qualia. Though a program can be written to differentiate one colour from another, this is purely automatic with not a scintilla of consciousness.

Our brain, on the other hand, has a radically different structure which does produce conscious experience. What we represent 700nm (red) and 500nm (green) light with, and what such representations are fundamentally like and how they are phenomenally different is the most important and fundamental attribute of what it means to be consciously aware, to perceive colour.

Computer software embedded in a robot can distinguish patterns of input from sensors and produce appropriate movements of actuators, but it is a mistake to see the behaviour and reason that the robot is conscious.