Reading through the comments I get the sense that there's something missing in our attempts to link "qualia" to hardware/wetware. My brain is made of neurons but "I" am not my neurons in and of themselves. There seems to be an emergent system of collective behaviour and responses to inputs that I call me. If a madman were to perform an experiment, successively scooping out teaspons of brain matter from my skull, I would start out being "me", but at some point, I would no longer be me (or perhaps anyone at all in the sense of being a conscious human). So while the hardware/wetware is a requirement, the conscious being "me" that I feel that I am, seems to be an emergent property of the organisation and dare I say "training" (tuning?) of this hardware.

So, if "I" am defined at an emergent level above the mere hardware, then there must be way of describing/defining the model of me. Intuitively, we build models of each other, especially people we know well. What is that model beyond an expectation/predictive model of behaviour based on possible inputs?

I feel that's where the gold is.

Full disclosure: I am just a fascinated bystander to this discussion. If this comment has elicited eye-rolls from those more familiar with the state of play, my apologies.