The hard problem of consciousness

Is consciousness just an emergent property of the brain?

If yes, how do subjective experiences occur from matter? I am assuming a chair isn't conscious and neither is the computer, despite the latter's complexity.

When (and where) does matter end and subjective experiences begin? Is a single neuron conscious? How many neurons (and how much connections) do we need for consciousness to start?

Now onto the hard problem of consciousness:

The easy problem concerns itself with how do specific brain areas and proceses accompany specific conscious states.

The hard problem is explaining why those physical processes would lead to subjective experiences in the first place.

What about qualia? To give an example -- colors don't objectively exist. There are lights of different wavelength. But somehow our brains convert those signals into red, blue, yellow etc. If our brains didn't evolve this ability -- we wouldn't even know what red or blue looked like (even if we studied their properties in details). For example, we have no way of perceiving infrared or ultraviolet because our brains don'thave the ability to do so. We can learn about their properties without ever knowing how they actually look like. A lot of what we perceive in the exterior world is actually a concoction of our brains. 

So how does a physial system give rise to subjective inner-world experiences? This includes emotions, physical sensations, and thoughts that run through our mind. How come some neurons firing in someway give rise to feelings of love, pain and orgasm?

We have made computers that can rival us in intelligence (at least in certain areas, like playing chess). But computers don't feel anything. When a computer wins a chess game, it won't feel elated like we do. I can break a computer into pieces and it won't even feel an inch of pain. A camera can take pictures and a monitor can display it, but the computer doesn't go 'Ow how beautiful' like we do. My ipod can play music but I don't think it can feel the same emotions as I do after listening to a song. We have feelings, emotions, sensations -- something that may very well be impossible for even the most accomplished supercomputers.

What is it about our brains that give rise to these subjective experiences?

Also why are certain areas like the cerebellum not important in consciousness?

I've heard from some neuroscientists that consciousness may be one of the fundamental irreducible properties of the universe. Some say consciousness cannot be studied scientifically (or that it would require a paradigm shift in science) as consciousness is subjective while science is concerned with the objective world.

Does the integrated information theory help explain the hard problem of consciousness Discuss.

Is this your college project? Anyway, consciousness is something our scientists even don't fully understand. So, yes, we may have to look elsewhere for explanations. Here are some quotes that are relevant-

~"Nobel Prize winning neuroscience Professor Eccles supports the theory that the mind is a separate entity and cannot be “reduced down to the brain cell processes”

~"An article on the Foundation’s site, asserts “we will never be able to account for the formation of consciousness through the electrical and chemical processes of the brain.” For skeptics, it’s important to realize that all articles on the Research Foundation’s website are reviewed or prepared by scientists directly involved in research." - Horizon Research Foundation

~And something Buddha said, "“If the mind is then within the body, it would be acquainted with the inner parts of the body itself. So that all men should be first sensible of … all that is within them, and afterwards … those things which are without. But how is it then, that we never meet a man who is able to see his own internal organs? That the mind is located within the body cannot be maintained.” - Surangama Sutra

I'm not much aware about quantum physics, but some theories do suggest of an universal consciousness. 

From what I read conscioiusness pervades the whole universe and beyond and we are not fully aware of it.