Consciousness is a funny thing. One can often function without it, apparently with subconcsious neural algorithms. Some blind people can catch balls thrown to them or avoid obstacles when walking, even though the visual connection to consciousness is severed.
Blind man 'sees' his way past obstacles
Are microbes following a chemical or light gradient aware of what they're doing? Are they doing it intentionally?
Are frogs actually aware of the flies they catch, or is the tongue flick when a small, fast moving object passes by entirely unconscious and unintentional?
Me, I manage to maintain a certain core temperature, pH, and blood sugar level entirely unconsciously.
Unnecessary complication is bad engineering, and in biology it can be metabolically costly. If there's not an actual
need to hook an operation into consciousness, the simplest and most efficient approach would be to bypass it and use only the circuitry necessary for the operation.
