Ask HN: Where should I start if I want to understand consciousness?

The point: what is the state of the "science", where is the edge of research done so far? Ideally, I would like to understand it through simulating a brain on a machine and I have heard some attempts are done but I don't know how much of that is a media hype.

Assume I am ready to dedicate my life to this - I think it's the most interesting question in the world!

History & bg: 24 year old, with CS degree, long time lurker here. I've been on a find-myself journey in the past 2-3 years, going through interning at Google MTV for a summer on an internal infra project for them (a long time dream, bit of a fan boy). Then I tried to start my own company - that didn't go well (webapp for online reviews). Now I'm into consulting since my runway ended and found good opportunity to get myself stable for a while. Starting a company is still interesting for me but the idea can't be that shitty as last time! :) In high school I've been going and winning physics and astronomy Olympiads and competitions and loved understanding how the Universe works from first principles. Always had an interest in how the human body and especially the brain works but done nothing serious besides layman interest in the subject so far. I don't know how relevant am I...

Any opinions?

Thanks!