He states, 'consciousness arises within any sufficiently complex, information-processing system.' All I can think of that fits that description are brains, and perhaps computers. Earthworms and the internet being conscious? I can't say I agree. There are many different definitions for consciousness, but to me its defining characteristics are self-awareness, self-reflection and developing culture. Perhaps dolphins and higher primates show some inkling of being conscious, but not lower life forms or machines as of yet. I read a fascinating book years ago entitled, The Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bi-cameral Mind, by Dr. Julian Jaynes of Princeton University. Its a very long and complex book, but I feel it's a great attempt to show what consciousness is, and what it is not, and how it might have developed in humans. His hypothesis shows how even though we have essentially the same physical brain as ancient homo sapiens, we did not discover consciousness until much later (i.e. our brains are the hardware, and we are able to run consciousness on it as a type of software). We know that consciousness is taught, as children brought up without it (as in the wild) don't develop it. He points to ancient writings as reflecting this; early Mesopotamia, Egypt and Greece display writing that objectively reports events that occurred (like the Iliad) with no internal/subjective struggle or feelings. This is a stark contrast to later works that are full of this reflection/subjectivity/internal mind-space displayed in later works (like the Odyssey). From this and many other data, He hypothesizes that we discovered consciousness when a simpler bi-cameral mental process broke down in the face of growing complexity of merging cultures and other survival challenges. But, I digress. I'm sure Mr. Koch knows much more than I about consciousness, I'll just have to read much more of what he has to say before I understand where he's coming from...
