RE: Emergent Properties

I don't think consciousness originates in the brain. I've seen research that indicates our gut fauna participates in our consciousness, and gut fauna doesn't have brains. There are some other reasons, but they're more difficult to convey, and I reckon that datum is decisive regarding brains being the source of consciousness. Certainly brains moderate consciousness, but if single celled organisms have some, it doesn't come from brains, but something fundamental to cells, perhaps the structures associated with DNA, or it may not be endemic to cells at all.

Frankly, we have no evidence that consciousness is limited to living things at all. While that may seem like a whacko viewpoint, it's a fact nonetheless, and I am not maintaining that the lack of evidence is proof rocks are sentient. I'm just making the point that we literally have no idea what consciousness is, how it happens, or where it comes from. Another startling fact about consciousness is that if our gut fauna are involved in our personal consciousness, that means consciousness is a collective, cross-species matter of some kind.

The moral of the story here is that we're not going to see Artificial General Intelligence in our lifetime. Consciousness may well be emergent, but what it emerges from remains to be ascertained.

Thanks!