This asks the question, would we be the same person if we were to upload our consciousness into a computer? Just how much of ourselves is because we have bodies?

It may be that consciousness is an efficient way to manage stimulus. I don't think there will ever be a conscious computer unless we construct hardware that can think and not simply do computations. A cat is conscious. I can visualize what it would be like to be a cat. I can't do the same for a computer.