I find this sort of thing fascinating both for what it means about our own consciousness, but also what it means for emergent consciousnesses. We're not sure when a dying brain stops being conscious; and we're not sure when a once-dead brain that's revived starts being conscious again. Why do we think we'd have any idea when an artificial brain awakens to consciousness?

I feel like the same ethical concerns raised in the article about accidentally reviving a person into a sensory-deprivation nightmare could also apply to accidentally generating a thinking being that can only express itself though shopping recommendations.

We're a long ways off yet from a comprehensive ethics of universal consciousness.