First we should be careful with the word 'generate' because we can easily fall into the reductionist trap again. And as we know, the only firm foundation of knowledge starts with the given, which is the ever metamorphosing first-person state of being. For this reason, we should always think about the vertical integration. A symphony is a good metaphor. Qualia is all that exists but takes on different configurations in our mandalic experience.
Let's start with the simpler case. Let's really assume that biological life can't exist without the higher order etheric/life morphic space. The latter bends the space of the particles and guides through states that result in temporal consistency of life. The question is, if we purely mechanically put together the particles of a cell together in the proper order, will it become alive (that is, not only for a while before it decoheres but in the true way)? I'm not sure at this time. It is possible that the potential higher life spaces are ubiquitous and as soon as they musically resonate with appropriate particle configuration in the lower order space, they will so to speak take over and keep the cell running. It might also be possible that such a resonance can only exist on the principle "omnis cellula e cellula" (every cell comes from a cell). In other words, the morphic spaces have started in resonant relations and only when the life space guides the division of the cell it results in both cells being properly attuned to the life space. As said, I don't have a certain answer but in the case of simple biological life I guess that it could be possible. Interestingly, if this is the case, it would have a very peculiar consequences for materialism because when some day scientists assemble a cell completely by hand (bottom-up, de novo) and potentially it becomes alive by resonating with higher order spaces that take over it, they would say "See, we told you that life is purely mechanical". We should note that the success of Venter's artificial cell is based on a top-down approach. He starts with living cells and practically knocks out the genes (by replacing the whole DNA with mechanically assembled one) until a minimal palette of genes is reached where the cell still functions and replicates. Yet this still remains an "omnis cellula e cellula" method. All of the cell's machinery besides the DNA comes from an original living cell thus any preexistent resonance with the life spaces is kept (basically the method mutilates a cell to the extent that the life spaces can still pivot its states such that it can stay integral with minimal amounts of genes - thus proteins/enzymes).
The question with a brain is more complicated because it seems to me that it would be much more challenging for mental spaces to take over just any appropriately constructed brain. The reason is that the symphony between the mental steering and the astral, etheric, physical spaces is much more complicated. In our present life these spaces have grown together around a single fertilized cell and as a result are tightly adapted to each other. No two brains are the same. If our ego (mental body) would try to take over just any random brain that might be practically impossible because the lower spaces of that brain would be like a completely different language for the constitution of our present mental space (resonance might not be possible). So it's my feeling that a mechanically constructed brain (even if it may become biologically alive by being taken over by life spaces) probably won't be able to resonate with a locus of mental space that can have clear self-consciousness there. This doesn't mean that mental beings can't have some experience in relation to that brain, it's just that that experience would be more like noise.
Of course, these are only my intellectual speculations. Simulations are interesting because they can potentially show whether purely mechanical interactions of particles are enough for biological life (because unlike assembling real particles, there's no danger for the simulation algorithm being taken over by life spaces).