What do "software" and "hardware" even mean in the context of the brain? All of what you call "software" is just the result of combinations of neuron patterns and chemicals, all of which could be included in a simulation.

Could and will are two completely separate things. As I said there is no research effort included in this project to attempt to discover those inputs.

A large portion of our instincts are hard-wired.

What about a sadly-not-too-hypothetical case of a child being raised in total isolation? Do they not possess consciousness?

  > A large portion of our instincts are hard-wired.

Not accurate, or at least misleading. There's a lot of plasticity in the brain even at the very basic levels. Raising a kitten in an atypical environment (e.g., without edges or contrast), for instance, yields profound functional differences from retinal ganglion cells over V1/V2 up to the dorsal and ventral streams of the visual system.

We are what we are because our brains are hard-wired to adapt to typical environments. Full isolation would cause substantial aberrations -- that's exactly what you observe in real-world cases.