The idea that how brains manifest consciousness requires a new understanding of physics to explain seems as implausible to me as the idea that how brains manifest the Chinese language does.
You seem to be treating "assuming X allows me to make reliable predictions" and "some people behave as though X were true" as equivalent assertions.
I agree with you that some people behave as though automated voice systems were people, but I don't believe that assumption helps them make more reliable predictions than they otherwise could.
I continue to think that when assuming a computer program is conscious allows me to make reliable predictions about it (or, to be more precise, allows me to make more reliable predictions than assuming the opposite would), I'll do so, and discussions of how computer programs don't have various attributes that brains have which must therefore explain why brains are conscious and computer programs aren't will just seem absurd.
Suppose I have choice between the following:
A) One simulation of me is run for me 100 years, before being deleted.
B) Two identical simulations of me are run for 100 years, before being deleted.
Is the second choice preferable to the first? Should I be willing to pay more to have multiple copies of me simulated, even if those copies will have the exact same experiences?
Forgive me if this question has been answered before. I have Googled to no avail.