I think the book does make a point that maybe one benefit of consciousness the ability to filter through all the information and spam that conscious beings prod

I think the book does make a point that maybe one benefit of consciousness the ability to filter through all the information and spam that conscious beings produce. E.g. The scramblers may view all the radio waves we blast everywhere as attempts at warfare and reducing the fitness of other species. Why else would a species emit so much information if not to DDOS their enemies?! tl;dr consciousness is a defense against ****posting and trolling caused by conscious beings.