Recommended Read: Are Large Language Models Conscious?

“Put another way, it may be possible to think, in some fashion, without
generating a conscious self — performing simple mathematical
calculations, for example. But thinking about something — a
tart green apple, Louis XVI of France — involves some mental synthesis
of an object outside the self. In effect, it creates a thinking self,
one necessarily capable of being aware of what is happening to it. “It
is the availability of language that confers on us, first, the ability
to be self-conscious, and second, the ability to feel,” Macphail
concludes.”