Yeah, the author claims that consciousness is observer independent, but then creates systems that depend on an "observer" (or rather, an interpreter) to make th

Yeah, the author claims that consciousness is observer independent, but then creates systems that depend on an "observer" (or rather, an interpreter) to make the system turing complete. The bar of iron isn't conscious or turing-complete just because one person can interpret it so. The bar of iron + the interpreter form a complete system. And in fact the bar of iron is really not doing anything in this case, it's the interpreter doing all the work, so it's more like saying "this human interpreter is conscious". Not a very insightful conclusion.