machines lack the ability to 'grok'.
Clarke was right, but sadly it doesn't take alien technology for people to start anthropomorphizing computers or thinking that they magically have transcended mere (though obviously very complexly-arranged) logic gates, it just takes a GUI that spits out algorithmically-generated pictures and text.
I would love to see a source for your belief of this.
I would. It's very common to describe the flow of electricity as similar to the flow of water. If it's electricity in my brain that allows me to understand, why couldn't there be an analogous system involving water which also understands?
Any substrate which supports the necessary logical operations ought to be sufficient. To believe otherwise seems needlessly anthropocentric.
This makes sense. Anything that performs logic using electricity is conscious and comparable to the human brain. This is obviously true because there is no word or concept for anthropomorphizing