Say that your reality is a simulation, call it reality_1. The reality in which the simulation is being carried out is prior to and outside of the simulated reality, call this reality_0. If your consciousness is identical to its functioning then since everything that influences or determines that functioning is in reality_1, anything thinkable in it is with reference to reality_1, even though it is quite capable of imagining that there is a reality_0. The sense that 'being' as the most inclusive or universal concept that belongs to the knowing of reality_1 is different from the sense of being that structures your consciousness in reality_1 in that the latter is extended by speculative dimensions. So, even though reality_0 cannot be known and is only conceivable, consciousness cannot be fully closed in terms of its knowing unless and until it knows reality_0. Hence it is not limited by its being regarded as identical to its functioning. More simply, insofar as consciousness is identical to its functioning it can negate itself in a Vedanta style 'not-this'. Or again, if consciousness were simulated then it would be the point at which the simulation begins to destroy itself.