Consciousness: Is it seperate from the human body?

[The Grand Nudger]

It may indeed be that the "exterior world" is very different from our sense maps/pictures/data - but it would be difficult to explain our success as a species (and more generally the success of other species which we view as their "outsiders" using similar equipment) - were this the case.

if the case is that the only tools we have to understand the unvierse with are several pounds of meat we call a brain, is it better to think that we can fully understand the universe by these means, or to think that we are more than our brains?

I fail to see how those are even opposing choices referent to some singular question? Is it better to what, with what, and what does this have to do with..well...anything? We -are- "more" than our brains. It's the total package. You don't point at a pair of axles with wheels attached and call them a BMW, right? "More" doesn't imply any sort of floating consciousness. It would be pointless to attempt to explain some aspect of consciousness without referencing everything that goes into it, because the limitations and ability of each component part are going to give us the tech specs for whatever we're referencing. "Touch" isn;t "just" the impulse in your brain, it has to do with the thickness of your skin, it's pliability, the way it interacts with objects of differing compositions...hell, even temperature (notice that a metal pole which is precisely the same temperature as the air outside will "feel" colder - that's not just a "software" bug or brain related..it's a kink of the supporting hardware as well).