GWTs have been popular and influential, but there are two dramatically different ways of interpreting them. In one version, items ‘become conscious’ by virtue of being broadcast. In other words something changes and a previously unconscious item becomes a subjective experience. The alternative is that nothing changes and the broadcast is all there is. This is what Dennett means by ‘cerebral celebrity’ or ‘fame in the brain’. There is nothing more to being famous than being widely known; likewise there is nothing more to being conscious than being widely available to further thought or action.
