No brainer: is consciousness a natural quality of the universe?

Christof Koch, a German-American neuroscientist, posits consciousness is an attribute of the universe, rather than something spawned by creatures possessed of a brain. Although somewhat left of field, the notion has raised eye-brows. Yet if consciousness is universal, so to speak, can any entity capable of reasoning, perceiving, learning, creating, and what not, eventually, somehow, become conscious? Few people think AI could ever achieve consciousness, but what of AGI, were that ever to come into being? If we were to take this idea to its logical, yet absurd outcome, that is.