I honestly think the view expressed here represents a confusion about how the brain and body interact. Here's the argument offered by Asa Young: "The brain is not simply receiving messages from the body... The heartbeat, breath, and gastric rhythm are regular, predictable signals around which groups of neurons can organize, determining when they become more or less receptive to information." I don't deny any of that. But consider this analogy: "The findings also complicate the familiar image of a brain in a vat," says Young. "This science-fiction brain, kept alive but severed from its body, might still generate neural activity. Yet it would be cut off from the recurring bodily signals that help give experience its visceral character and anchor it to a living self." But the 'brain in a vat' thought experiment postulates a brain complete with input signals exactly like those from the various senses, including bodily sensations, as well as physical parameters, such as blood flow. There isn't some magic non-physical mechanisms through which the body interacts with the brain. And if it's physical, it can be emulated.
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