One could argue it is.. And it is reduced and replaced in some adaption to stressful environs? A traumatized system consists mostly of flashbacks and instant re

One could argue it is.. And it is reduced and replaced in some adaption to stressful environs? A traumatized system consists mostly of flashbacks and instant reactions to the stimulus. A paranoid adaptation to a hostile world shirks conscious perception of complexity for a "all things are enemy out to get me" minimalistic consciousness as it would be found in a hunted mouse. The more dangerous the environment becomes the more reduced cognition seems to be. Assuming now that most civilizations destroy the environment they are in, longterm evolution should award subconscious processing.. That is focused on longterm instinct behavior. Such a adaptation would present itself as worship of one's own gut feelings as divine being whos instructions and recommendations point towards less conscious processing and more optimization towards the environment, which does not reward consciousness and it's products:music, art, literature but rewards more offspring by continued existence. Watts seemed pretty correct to me and the billions in subsistence or warzones arguing in religious mobs for less conscious processing seem to agree. You are correct on the brain needed for conscious controlled cognition being expensive, thus only being able to be kept around by a scientific calorie surplus producing society. Without that the universal Fermi trap closes shut, the individual forever adapting towards a barely conscious tool using tribal entity.