Another comment to add a few years later than the original post and hence be pretty useless:
My thoughts are that consciousness (as in the experience of it) is a kind of epiphenomenon:
The sensation is derived from cognitive processes that map isomorphically to an abstract model of consciousness in mindspace (and I do not make any distinction or heirarchy between realspace and mindspace in terms of privileged levels of existence).
It does this because the brain is doing exactly what it feels like consciousness does—integrating various inputs into a representation of self and environment, making plans and telling a consistent story about it all. And the mapping, by being possible, is also real.
Another comment to add a few years later than the original post and hence be pretty useless:
My thoughts are that consciousness (as in the experience of it) is a kind of epiphenomenon:
The sensation is derived from cognitive processes that map isomorphically to an abstract model of consciousness in mindspace (and I do not make any distinction or heirarchy between realspace and mindspace in terms of privileged levels of existence).
It does this because the brain is doing exactly what it feels like consciousness does—integrating various inputs into a representation of self and environment, making plans and telling a consistent story about it all. And the mapping, by being possible, is also real.