Our universe is most likely a computer simulation

[cthulu2016]

34. Is a bit of algae "prefering" sunlight a problem for physics?

I don't know that algae doesn't think sunlight is beautiful, to the best of it's ability.

If consciousness is special then someone has to identify something about it that is special that doesn't boil down to, "I am the one doing the thinking here and I think I am special."

Unless we invoke some mysticism somewhere (which I grant the Copenhagen interpretation of quantum physics does) then the ghost in the machine is irrelevant except in how it is manifested physically.

It's like saying that oxygen combines readily carbon because every atom of oxygen thinks it is Napoleon and thinks that every carbon atom looks like Josephine. Unless that model says something different about the interaction than ordinary chemistry says it is irrelevant.

And unless consciousness interacts directly with the universe other than by directing chemical processes (like moving my hand) then why would physics care?

Without a physical manifestation of consciousness itself there's nothing for physics to explain.