> There are also some cog-sci people who think embodiment is a crucial ingredient in consciousness

Very plausible. The Real World(tm) has some very interesting learning properties.

First: Make a prediction

Then observe:

1 If it's caused by our own movement, filter it out.

2. Nothing in the outside world changes most of the time, so anything that's left is small, and small is likely noise. Filter it out.

3. Whatever prediction error remains must be important: Attend to it, and update the predictor.

The learning rule falls out almost automagically.