“Searle [] claims that organic brains are required to produce consciousness — at one point he actually said brains secrete consciousness, as if it were some sort of magical goo [].”

Different sets of information in the brain produce different individual consciousness, as different organizations of protons, neutrons, and electrons create matter with different properties.

Animal consciousness is created by the information present in the genome, thus creating species members with the same properties.

Human consciousness is created by the information "acquired" while growing up in a "social womb," thus creating singular individual consciousnesses.

Consciousness is as real even if not present in its constituents but in their organization, as matter is real, even if not present in their constituents but in their organization.

Gold is as difficult to explain in terms of electrons and protons, which have all the same properties, as consciousness is in physical terms:

https://agaudreault.files.wordpress.com/2022/01/platinum-gold-mercurysamples-1-1.jpg That is Searle 1 Dennett and supports the hypothesis of "proto-consciousness" in matter. (I got this concept of proto-consciousness 50 years ago at the age of 26 in Jean E. Charon's DE LA PHYSIQUE A L'HOMME:

https://agaudreault.files.wordpress.com/2019/10/30872-1bpi2moqnysezfbs231pnza.jpeg

This picture perfectly represents my type of thinking.

If I were an artist, I would include "strings" in it.