Science

I mean you'd absolutely expect that if a neural net that creates a model of the world and itself within that world, then you would end up with some form of self awareness as a result. You'd expect degrees of fidelity, but it seems strange to think of consciousness as an on/off switch. It's much more plausible that it's a gradient, especially in animals that have a neural feedback loop where the brain has proprioceptory feedback from the body and can correlate intent to do an action.

I get the impression that people just like feeling that humanity is special somehow, and also use the notion that animals don't have self awareness to justify the horrors that humans enact upon other animals.