Except for dolphins and whales, are other animals conscious? So in a way consciousness and being alive aren’t the same. So I still agree with our initial definition
Discussion
I think that awareness of awareness is a good way to divide instinct and being aware probally can be reproduced in a robot at some point.
But being aware of your own thought process etc i think is the thing that makes us human
I think (high level of) intelligence could differentiate between instinct and being aware. Maybe certain animals have higher intelligence than others. But maybe not as much intelligence as humans. Just thinking out loud