> anything that processes data and performs decision-making has some kind of 'consciousness' that sits 'atop' it?

There's an interesting thought experiment along these lines. Suppose someone builds a computer program which - when run with a specific input/environment - is intelligent, conscious, and feels pain and joy etc... .

Now, that computer program and even its inputs can be simulated effectively by 1's and 0's. The substrate shouldn't matter. So you can - in principle - run the exact same agorithmic decision-making process on the exact same inputs by getting a large group of people to write and edit 1's and 0's on pieces of paper according to well-defined rules and very simple interactions with the people around them.

Is this total process, now represented merely by marks on pieces of paper, a conscious being? Does it still feel pain and joy?

I find it both absurd and impossible to refute.