On what basis? If there was an "aware" AI program, it would be just as "aware" in a silicon computer as it would be in a marble computer (albeit much more slow).

Probably on the same basis that your blood cells, skin cells, etc aren't sentient. So the cardboard and marbles would not be sentient, but the system might be. Its the difference between an intrinsic property of the system and an emergent one.

Hmmm... When I posted this the only other comment was "yes". I thought we could just vote this out to determine what the "correct" answer should be.