The Philosophy of Mind: Zombies, "radical emergence" and evidence of non-experiential

[Edwardo Piet]

A commonly referenced framework for an evolutionary theory of consciousness is AST.  Attention Schema Theory.  It posits that qualia is a form of internal modeling, and that the benefits of this internal modeling are not only observable in other physical systems...but also, in all likelihood, much farther back down the evolutionary branches than we might expect.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Attention_schema_theory

(you should really browse the publications in reference - particularly the lit review)

Again, this is all irrelevant to my points.

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A commonly referenced framework for an evolutionary theory of consciousness is AST.  Attention Schema Theory.  It posits that qualia is a form of internal modeling, and that the benefits of this internal modeling are not only observable in other physical systems...but also, in all likelihood, much farther back down the evolutionary branches than we might expect.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Attention_schema_theory

(you should really browse the publications in reference - particularly the lit review)

Here's the thing, though.  You seem to be giving a final cause, which I'd say is a pretty idealistic view: "Well, consciousness helps an organism to thrive in its environment."  But the point of interest is how or why there can be such a thing as consciousness.

Right. And the OP is about debating the point of interest in which he ignores.

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Here's the thing, though.  You seem to be giving a final cause, which I'd say is a pretty idealistic view: "Well, consciousness helps an organism to thrive in its environment."  But the point of interest is how or why there can be such a thing as consciousness.

Answered in ast as a form of internal (and in more elaborate implementations, environmental and projective) modeling.

Far from answering it... it doesn't even address it.

Again, you're confusing how consciousness works with what consciousness is.