/sci/ - Science & Math

bruh, what is consciousness?

https://www.princeton.edu/~graziano/evolution_of_consciousness_2017.pdf

I had a heated discussion at work today about this and a colleague of mine was adamant that consciousness was separate to the physical matter inside ones head. That there was almost some sort of supernatural aspect to its existence and that it was much more than signals travelling within the grey matter of the brain. I have the opinion that consciousness is the result of the physical workings of the brain, nothing more.

I found this conversation difficult because in most subjects this guy is clearly much smarter than I am, he has been able to change my opinion on many subjects, but on this I fundamentally disagree with him and struggle to see how he could possibly think this way. He is not religious, but perhaps he has an undisclosed spiritual belief of some sort? Is the argument of consciousness at its core a debate between the natural and supernatural?

So where does /sci/ stand on consciousness?