Consciousness (as in: a subjective EXPERIENCE) is IMHO in the same category as "why there is something rather than nothing?". That is, it falls back to the ant

Consciousness (as in: a subjective EXPERIENCE) is IMHO in the same category as "why there is something rather than nothing?". That is, it falls back to the anthropic principle. If we didn't exist, we wouldn't even be able to consider this question. Or in other words: it is hard to formulate the opposite. I can be wrong, of course. For long decades scientists considered the hidden variable theory of quantum mechanics ("God does not play dice" - as summarised by Einstein) a philosophical challenge. John Bell was not able to publish his research as it was considered "not even physics". It was surprising that a seemingly philosophical challenge turned into a testable one.