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We are accustomed to thinking of consciousness as the privilege of life, or even only higher vertebrate life, or even only - according to religions like Christianity - of human life. This assumption is due to the limitations of Western metaphysical thinking. It has been observed - correctly I feel - that modern man is a technological giant but a metaphysical pygmy. With all our scientific know-how, our knowledge of non-physical realities is generally minimal.
So on the one hand, we have the exoteric face of religions like Judaism and Christianity, that limit the spiritual principle (or "soul") to human beings alone, and add a single "God" or "Creator" on top of everything. These religions, stuck in a conceptual framework that is centuries out of date, are unable to relate to or plausibly explain the complexity of the modern world (which includes computers), or the teachings of alternative spiritual philosophies.
On the other hand, sceptical materialism, while possessing a pretty good understanding of how gross physical matter and energy work (i.e. "twentieth century science") denies all spiritual principles, and derives consciousness from the functioning of very complex brains (i.e. higher vertebrates, or even only Homo sapiens). The only way a computer could ever be conscious, according to the sceptical materialist, is for it to be built and programmed with the same complexity of the human brain, in which case it will suddenly become self-aware in the same way an adult rational person is self-aware. This sort of super-computer or Artificial Intelligence is a common science-fiction theme. It may or may not be something that will eventually be possible to construct, but it is hardly relevent or practical with present day technology.
There are of course alternatives in 19th and 20th century Western thinking to these two cul-de-sacs; for example Theosophy and Occultism. But those sort of worldviews are still very much minority positions.
The whole problem with understanding the consciousness of non-human beings is because, due to our being conditioned by the twin dead-ends of exoteric Judaeo-Christian supernaturalism on the one hand, and scientistic sceptical materialism on the other, we tend to think of consciousness as a distinctly human quality; i.e. something that is tied up with a personality and a complex brain. But this is a very limited perspective to take. Consciousness may well take many many forms, including forms that are at first glance unrecognisable to us as consciousness.
The
Nature of "Animistic" Consciousness
Occult
and spiritual entities: Elements, Daimons, and Gods
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