Minsky thought that consciousness is pretty much just a meaningless word, and that it's more interesting to divide it into pieces that you can work on:
https://youtu.be/AO7F0n2Dclc?t=20m13s
> Minsky thought that consciousness is pretty much just a meaningless word
In a sense, it certainly is [a meaningless word], in that it is an attempt to refer to something that has no qualities, so you can't really talk about it. If it weren't for the fact that you yourself are conscious there would be no way (or reason) to talk about it at all.
Now, I don't object to the idea that Minsky's work (or "agent theory") would usefully inform philosophy. In fact I agree with that whole-heartedly. The relatively unsophisticated epistemological stance of much of modern philosophy could be improved by a greater familiarity with computers et. al., in my (pretty ignorant actually) opinion.
What I objected to was the idea the the study of the so-called "Hard Problem of Consiousness" was "a detour". It can't be studied scientifically but it can still be studied.
Philosophy is the womb of science and the vestibule of mysticism.
These are nice lectures in general, too.