And it is also true to say that you are running into the limits of your imagination by saying that a brain can be simulated by software : you are falling back to the closest model we have : discrete math/computers, and are failing to imagine a computational mechanism involved in the operation of a brain that is not possible with a traditional computer.

The point is we currently have very little understanding of what gives rise to consciousness, so what is the point of all this pontificating and grand standing. Its silly. We've no idea what we are talking about at present.

Clearly, our state of the art models of nueral-like computation do not really simulate consciousness at all, so why is the default assumption that they could if we get better at making them? The burden of evidence is on conputational models to prove they can produce a consciousness model, not the other way around.