There are two very different things both commonly referred to as consciousness. The first can easily be seen as a 'system' like any other one might study—it's b

There are two very different things both commonly referred to as consciousness. The first can easily be seen as a 'system' like any other one might study—it's basically the part of our brain that does self-awareness (monitors and reacts to 'lower-level' brain activity). The second usage is about accounting for the existence of qualia/immediate experience (the 'hard problem' of consciousness is reconciling what immediate experience is like with the fact that when we look in brains we only find neurons [basically a restatement of the classic mind-body problem in philosophy, but now with a more narrow/specific aspect of mind deemed problematic]). I assume the authors are aware of both definitions, but 'consciousness' sounds even more impressive than self-awareness, so...