Caption: "Neural correlates of consciousness. An exact copy of Figure 1.1 (Neuronal correlates of consciousness) in Christof Koch's (1956--) book The Quest for Consciousness: A Neurobiological Approach (2004)." (Somewhat edited.)

From Wikipedia: Neural correlates of consciousness:

"The Neural correlates of consciousness (NCC) constitute the minimal set of neuronal events and mechanisms sufficient for a specific conscious percept."

But we don't really understand the emergence of our intrinsic sense of consciousness out of physical reality NOR why our perception has the qualities it has: this is the hard problem of consciousness: for example, why does visible light (fiducial range 0.4--0.7 μm) look the way it does which is NOT something that can be deduced from electromagnetism. But in the opinion of many, we probably will understand these things, maybe even relatively soon.

Keywords: artificial intelligence (AI), brain, consciousness, extraterrestrial intelligence, hard problem of consciousness, intelligence, memory, mind, neural correlates of consciousness (NCC), neuron, neuroscience, pattern recognition, percept, perception, proprioception, psychoacoustical perception, psychoanalysis, psychology, psychophysics, Sigmund Freud (1856--1939), understanding, etc.
See also: human, dog, German Shepherd.