It seems to me that if you extend 'conscious' to cover things outside a persons attention, you've made the word 'conscious' meaningless. If I take away all of the things that you claim to be 'conscious' of but not actively aware of, would you be comfortable with me saying you were no longer conscious? Sure you actively thinking about things, but you don't have that sensation of the bottom of your big toe in your shoe somewhere in the background, therefore you must be less than conscious. The idea of meta-consciousness I think still has plenty of merit, but extending 'conscious' to everything you are unaware of is useless and also can never stop. Why not include the things that are stimulating your nerves as well as the stimulation of the nerves itself? Why not extend it out to blanket the whole of the universe?
