I think Vedāntins often confuse four entities: the kartā–bhoktā ego self, conditioned intentional consciousness, witnessing consciousness and pure consciousness.
The first three, individual and collective, belong to the experiential, mechanical realm of prakṛti. The last is pure existence, free from movement, measurable processes and spatio-temporal structures. Pure consciousness is existential; the other three are experiential.
The neti not only separates the subject from objects, but later presents objects as expressions of the subject. The cause appears as the effect without undergoing any change (kārya-kāraṇayor abhedaḥ). That cause is existence, whose inalienable nature is consciousness and bliss.
So consciousness is in every manifestation and is every manifestation. From this standpoint, I can foresee the possibility of machine consciousness.
Birds sleep while flying; bats see through sound. Life may exist in other modes on other planets. If it quacks like a duck and walks like a duck, it is a duck.
That we cannot enter a machine’s mind does not mean it cannot become conscious in the experiential sense.
This is my speculation based on Advaita Vedānta. Let us be open to all possibilities.
Swami Bodhananda, 3 November 2026