I sat in a philosophy class in high school. I went to a prep school, so it was a Ph.D. teaching. I adamantly explained that neurons firing is the same as a feeling of pain. But he kept telling me that my feeling of pain is distinct from the firing in my brain. It took me weeks to realize what he was saying. That a conscious feeling is a distinct thing. That I could be in "the matrix", and no brain is actually firing. That the feeling is the only thing we know is real.

So I would suggest that simulating consciousness has nothing to do with it. I would suggest there must be technology in the brain to produce it that operates on a level we have no comprehension of. Maybe quantum or something.