con-science: con = together sciere = to know https://www.etymonline.com/word/conscious

knowing together, meaning to know what is true and what is false, what is right and what is wrong, as a collective of intelligent minds. acting on true knowledge results in order, whereas acting on false information results in chaos.

My favorite metaphor is of a theater. The theater has has a stage and audience members who can be brought up on stage in an instant. Our attention is what's on stage while the audience members represent all of the other little thought networks which are listening in their own way to what's going on, not just on stage but in the audience. In this metaphor sensory data is like a screen that's up on stage. Not sure how physical actions fit into this but call it a WIP.

Edit: I should add that Hume and Chomsky each touch on a theater model but I wasn't satisfied with their models so this is the result.

A chemically-regulated biological compute module with opensource firmware.

All that exists.

Consciousness is often described as the state of being aware of and able to think about one's own existence, sensations, thoughts, and surroundings. It involves a complex interplay of perception, cognition, and self-awareness. Philosophically, consciousness is considered the subjective experience of "what it feels like" to be a sentient being.

From a scientific perspective, consciousness is associated with neural activity in the brain, particularly in regions like the prefrontal cortex, which are involved in higher-order cognitive functions. However, its exact mechanisms remain a mystery, leading to ongoing debates in neuroscience, psychology, and philosophy.