Anesthesia practically eliminates consciousness yet the brain states are probably more similar than brains and the United States. I'm not sure I agree that apparent similarity is good enough to conclude that the US is probably conscious under a materialist framework.
Definitely possible, however. And fun to consider whole galaxies exhibiting consciousness.
> fun to consider whole galaxies exhibiting consciousness.
Yeah, but a slow consciousness that would be, unless information can travel at speeds faster than light. If not, then there is a limit to how large a computer can be on account of the speed of light and a few other physical limitations.
Definitely possible, however. And fun to consider whole galaxies exhibiting consciousness.