what is awareness?

I know the answer to this question, but most people dont as evidenced by the AI threads lately asking what makes a machine sentient. So try and answer the question both in regards to man and machine, because before I can show you where you are wrong you have to say what it is that is wrong.

It's a gestalt. The implementation is irrelevant, so a thinking computer can just as easily develop a subjective conscious experience.

I'd expect the first few "AI"s to be virtual copies of deceased people where every neuron's tiniest interactions are being simulated, followed by major strides in the field as the actual underlying rules of consciousness are discovered and implemented in a much more efficient, algorithmic fashion.