This is a very sensitive topic, I am personally a fan of human beings. If we could identify me with a type of thinking, I could consider myself an Enlightenmentist: Nothing can be more efficient than the human brain, not even a positronic one.
It may make much faster connections because it has a physical memory, but the emotions, (what you rightly call consciousness) those that make you human; those no, they will not be able to experience them, maybe simulate them but it will not be a matter of "feeling" it will only be a matter of "simulating."
Unfortunately, one thing is true: we must not become slaves to technology; that would be a nonsense.
We invented it to help us perform the fastest calculations and the most strenuous and heavy jobs, but enough is enough for the smart things we are there, the humans!