Does it make sense to speak of "Universal Consciousness" or "Universal Intelligence"?

[bennyboy]

On the contrary, as many animals display the same sort if consciousness, you haven't explained why it's unnecessary, nor why evolutionary psychology is highly accurate at explaining behavior.

Simply, you are arguing that less complex algorithms are better adaptations to the environment

I don't think you're on the same page as me with regard to how the term consciousness is being used. I'm talking about the existence, rather than the non-existence of qualia.

Given that qualia are only the subjective awareness of the "algorithms" you're talking about, the elephant in the room isn't about comparative bioligy-- it's about why qualia exist rather than not-- since there's no good reason a brain (or any other machine) couldn't process any amount of information without having subjective experience about it.