Banks is referencing the idea of "vitalism" - that living things have some special quality that nonliving things lack. It's kind of like a soul: it doesn't come

Banks is referencing the idea of "vitalism" - that living things have some special quality that nonliving things lack. It's kind of like a soul: it doesn't come from any particular ability of living things (like your example of projecting an abstract). A thinking vitalist would say that, even if a computer could do the thing you're talking about, it wouldn't be "conscious" because consciousness requires this aura that only living creatures possess.