I searched Google with “awareness of awareness” and found several unhelpful pages. Later I realized that they all speak subjectively. I want to speak objectively of what a program would have to achieve so that we might best describe its behavior in terms of consciousness. Perhaps consciousness arose only with speech so we could say: “The way I see it …”.
I find this to be remarkably clear for so difficult a subject. I think it is largely correct and I need to incorporate it into my stuff.
My use of “conscious” is what some call 2nd order conscious. First order is when I am aware of a curve when I am driving. That suffices to stay on the road but not to derail some train of thought. In this sense Google’s car software is first order conscious. I feel more comfortable with the word “aware” here.
When philosophers talk of zombies (.) it seems as if they think that the only reason to think that there is consciousness is subjective reports thereof. I have not decided yet whether it is necessary for the computer to speak before ascribing consciousness to it.
Axel Cleeremans has many similar ideas, mostly expressed in much more detail.