If you want to see how senses affect our consciousness, look at people who are blind, or deaf, or both. These people are no less people. As for a consciousness not being able to exist inside a box. Explain to me how it would know it's inside a box. Imagine giving it an artificial body, you give it controls just like you'd give a player controls, a consciousness wouldn't be able to tell the difference. So that's bunk too. As a computer programmer myself, I don't believe in the turing test, just because something seems human, doesn't mean that it is human. This is because I can, as a programmer envision a situation that may occur, I plan for it and give instructions to the computer telling it exactly what to do. A computer at that point will always make that decision. Thoughts are only possible, because decisions aren't made yet. Furthermore, consciousness is inherently selfish. I am the center of the universe, I am the most important, I deserve to live, I am afraid to die. Notice that none of the computers felt that way. Not in a single example.