why is self-awareness usually discussed as something profoundly mysterious and advanced?
There are interesting questions connected with conscious self-awareness. Specifically, whether our conscious experience is (and directs) the thought process, or whether it is a shadow that lags most actual decision making. There’s an interesting experiment with split-brained patients where one half of the brain can see a glass of water and reach a hand out to it, but the other half is unaware of this and makes up a reason on the fly as to why it carried out that action.
There are interesting questions connected with conscious self-awareness. Specifically, whether our conscious experience is (and directs) the thought process, or whether it is a shadow that lags most actual decision making. There’s an interesting experiment with split-brained patients where one half of the brain can see a glass of water and reach a hand out to it, but the other half is unaware of this and makes up a reason on the fly as to why it carried out that action.
Have you read the essay on self-awareness by V S Ramachandran ?