You should check out the film The Others (2001 - Nicole Kidman).

Exactly - consciousness, to me, simply has everything to do with self-preservation. The platform (a body as we humans define it) is just one variable. A machine could, arguable, act in a way little different from, in fact possibly better than, a human might. I suppose we may see, and possibly sooner than we might like.

The desire to remain active, involved and 'alive' - that's the point of most anything. I suspect that the detection of threat is a big variable in programming AI to be self-preserving. Once a system can effectively identify and successfully deal with any/every threat to its existence, I guess watch the fuck out.

As an English teacher, I can totally read and understand what you are describing and how/why it solves the problem.

As an English teacher, I'm also smart enough to know when to call someone like you to come and do the job for me! ;)

I have a similar dilemma in my townhome. Been trying to figure out a solution for 10+ years and cannot think of one. That said, I will NEVER consider drilling in anything loadbearing. The term alone should tell anyone, especially laypersons such as I, NOT to fuck with them in any way whatsoever.