You would say the table in front of me is data inside a physical computer, whatever the physics of the real world were, assuming they aren't the same as our sim

You would say the table in front of me is data inside a physical computer, whatever the physics of the real world were, assuming they aren't the same as our simulated world (perhaps they are an approximation of the real all depending on the purpose of the simulation). That's different from the world being mathematical or informational, which raises the question of what makes it real to us. What breathes life into the equations? Consciousness? Where does consciousness come into the picture?