Your question was 'what is it' not 'how do I distinguish it'. It will not be possible to uniformly distinguish between conscious beings from mechanisms based on external observation alone, imo. I also suspect we may have entirely distinct models of the mechanisms and natural phenomena involved. I mean, I don't believe we are parametric boxes. And consciousness, in my understanding, is not an emergent phenomena. The self is. (thanks! Just dropping by. You're always good for interesting reading.) p.s. what could phenomena such as remote viewing have to tell us about consciousness. I strongly urge you to fully re-examine your model of 'sight'. See what you can come up with. The phenomena of 'seeing light' in your cranium. Start there. Novelty (specially structurally) gets points. https://www.cia.gov/readingroom/docs/CIA-RDP96-00791R000200180005-5.pdf