Hmm this seems very confused, and it's arguable whether more consciousness / self awareness has any net benefit for social cohesion. It's very useful from an e

Hmm this seems very confused, and it's arguable whether more consciousness / self awareness has any net benefit for social cohesion. It's very useful from an evolutionary standpoint to have an accurate internal model 'me', which you can project into hypothetical scenarios and learn from them, reducing risk and the amount of trial and error (and so increasing survival). I like the Hofstadter view that consciousness arises from the 'strange loopiness' of this self-awareness of the 'I' model. Any social benefits are secondary, rather than the driving force, and are a result of this model and differentiating 'me' from 'you'.