I think you are right, it would be surprising if we discovered something outside our understanding of physics (god) to give us what we perceive as consciousness

I think you are right, it would be surprising if we discovered something outside our understanding of physics (god) to give us what we perceive as consciousness. It's been hypothesized that some unknown quantum effect might provide us this ability, but there is no indication of that yet. My general thought is, that since our brain is made of matter, it can be dissected and understood and eventually copied. Except, we are reverse engineering millions of years of evolution, which is exceedingly hard! We have had access to the information about all the proteins that make our brain cells for almost two decades, and still, their function has to be teased out in year long experiments. Not to speak of understanding the workings of the Homo Sapiens brain as a whole. It is also an analog 'computer', the performance of which we have no perceivable chance to match, at least in the near and most likely also distant future.