Right, as far as I understand it that's also close to how Tononi's and Koch's Integrated Information Theory[1] try to explain conscious phenomena. In their parlance the computer would have a low value of phi.

I was surprised that this theory is not even mentioned in the article, even though Aaronson has quite some opinion on it.[2]

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Integrated_information_theory

[2] http://www.scottaaronson.com/blog/?p=1799