> Philosophy is just thoughts and thoughts about thoughts.
I think these thoughts contain (in an ideal variant of philosophy which doesn't exist yet) enough "philosophical content" to directly help create AGI. Why do you think philosophy is so irrelevant here?
> Philosophers can get so wrapped up in thoughts they say nonsense
If someone says nonsense, that should not discredit the general ideas/foundation.
This is called an argument. It's what philosophers make.
Your attitude is a pretty typical one: "Philosophy is stupid, but this philosophical viewpoint that I have is special and somehow not bound to the things that apply to philosophy." It's a very common and predictable move from those that lack knowledge of the subject; the New Atheists and the philosophy of religion are a very prominent example.
Is it possible to compute without consciousness? (Yes.)
Is it possible to perform calculation over ideas without consciousness? Apparently so.
> understanding
You should prove that a "formal" form of understanding would be insufficient for reasoning.