Agreed on the predictability. In fact, I'm a bit of compatibilist, i.e. subscribing to the notion that free will and determinism are compatible.

And I've seen the argument being made that consciousness is fundamental and prior to anything else (Chalmers? Don't recall.)

But I disagree for now, and I think awareness is an emergent property dependent on various pre-conditions (like perception, a model of self, possibly "embodied cognition" (not sure about that), etc.), and it's absurd to speak of a few atoms having awareness.

(With modern computers, we might be getting there at some point...)