Hey just wanted to comment that I also have the same stance on consciousness. There is no evidence to prove that consciousness is something more than what our brain is actually composed of. Even though we still can't digitally replicate a human brain, I think we have a fair understanding of where our thoughts come from and how the brain actually works. After being taught Sam Harris's points in his book "Free Will" I was convinced there's no need for a conciousness. While I would really like to think I'm more than mechinary and illusions of the mind and a nervous system, I think it is more beneficial in the end to accept that we have no free will or concious, both personally and scientifically.
I kind of take the line that it's information processing, but our decisions aren't our own. Your brain makes the decision before you're aware of it. I'm not convinced it's more than blind mechanism with an illusion of a thought out conception
If our decisions are not our own, then that implies a higher order, a god-like figure that instructs our very being. If we do not have consciousness, then we cannot be individuals. We cannot be human, but constructs of a machine, physical or natural. Whether we are a group orientated society or an individualistic one, there are thoughts that arise that make us see there is consciousness of will. Consciousness is not a day-to-day activity but one of constructive thought that allows us to differentiate oneself from those around us.
We have consciousness but our minds are selective. Consciousness is what we like to think of as being awake and aware. It changes. Today I cannot remember how to get to my friends house like I did in 1970. Everything in the area has changed. I do remember "being there" but not how to get there. If I had went to his house all the time I might remember, but I did not do that. My conscious remembrence has been changed. This happens again with all my friends and places I have been, what I remember and how I remember it now as I pull it from my past. I am conscious of events but they have changed. Sometimes something is added. Other times it is missing. Truth is elusive.
But we do have consciousness. otherwise you would not know about this site or what time your favorite TV show comes on.
If you are defining consciouness as being aware of your surroundings and perception of being, then "Yes," consciouness does exist. If you ar putting a metaphysical bent to the term, then "No." the question as to where does our conscious mind exist is still a scientific questition that has not ben answered.
Experiments with the human brain have proven that electrodes touching certain areas of the brain make the subject say certain words and phrases. That pretty much shows me where our
consciousness is.