I really ought to put down my thoughts/takes on some of the key Cog Sci issues/viewpoints:
Initial comments based on Blackmore's Conversations book, but gradually reading the original books and papers.
I'm very tempted to take XX's line and not worry too much about these by saying that they are "too much though and not enough experiment" being a practical engineering sort, but I suppose people will expect me to have a view. It does seem though that so much of them depends on exact phrasing and meanings (technical) or words, so its easy to mis-read them (in Blackmore's Conversations book no one agrees on what the Philosophers Zombie means, let alone its veracity - even Chalmers.
http://www.merkle.com/brainLimits.html - neat info, 10^15 synapses, 10^11 neurons
http://www.answerbag.com/q_view/220062
The gram molecular weight of H2O? is 1+1+16 = 18 grams per mole. How many grams are there? Let us calculate:
Grams of ocean water = (1.3*10^9 cubic km)(10^9 cubic m / 1 cubic km)(10^6 cubic cm/1 cubic m)(1 gram of water/1 cubic cm of water) = 1.3*10^24 grams.
Divide by 18 to get 7.2*10^22 moles of water. Using good ol' Avogadro's number: (6.02*10^23 molecules/mole) (7.2*10^22 moles) = 4.3*10^46 molecules of water in the oceans.
ie 1g of water has about 10^22 molecules