Here are my thoughts on this:
If we agree that there can be an abstraction of functionality that could be called consciousness, I do not see any reason, in principle, we could not instantiate that functionality in non-biological implementation. And what do we mean by biology - basically chemistry based on Carbon i.e. organic chemistry. Some may ask how come non-biological consciousness does not occur naturally? First off, we do not know that for sure. But it may also to have to do with complexity as a requirement for higher degree of consciousness and the particulars of Carbon's chemistry. Because of the valency of 4, the tetrahedral shape of the carbon atom and how readily it can form covalent bonds with its cohorts - Hydrogen, Oxygen, Nitrogen etc. lends itself to form moderately complex, longer chains molecules naturally and with suitable stable environmental conditions, these less complex molecules build even more complex molecules - proteins, amino acids, RNA and most useful DNA. This natural possibility of generation of complex molecules makes organic chemistry as a good candidate for development of conscious behavior. I am not aware of any other element that is naturally capable of this to the degree Carbon is. Silicon has valency of 4 also but does not readily form complex molecules. Luckily exploding stars created Carbon and it's cohorts in abundance. That helps too.
But now that humans have evolved and are able to control the natural environment and intentionally build stuff, we should be able to instantiate abstraction of consciousness in software on our computers with AI and if we build such the AI to also be able to order spare parts for hardware from Amazon and EBay, it could then build more conscious physical things. Joking aside, I say this because biological bodies are bathing in the soup of raw material (hardware - the soup of chemicals in the cells) to generate themselves.
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