Yeah, we need to think about our own survival in the presence of something that can potentially view itself as superior and us as a problem, since we are not very good at solving our own problems it may decide to do it for us :/
The degree of the psychological dimension emerges from the biological brain-neuronal network. All demonstrations in reality point to this, and no other way for consciousness to exist. I don't know if it will be possible to create consciousness apart from that. Like you say, we don't even know exactly how it emerges, only that it does hehe.