consciousness (and the higher-level awareness that feeds general intelligence) costs calories. Thus, we are evolved to MINIMIZE THE NEED. We like to think of ourselves as self-aware, and we can be...but most of the time we're in a lower state. When this near-lizard-brain state runs into something it doesn't have a preprogrammed response to, consciousness is engaged. We figure out how to respond to such situations...and we shut down again.
Once we learn to break this cycle, a great many wonders and horrors will be unleashed as we wrestle with what to do with a larger quantity of time being AWARE.
I myself am terrified that I don't get bored the way I used to as a kid. I assume this is because my lower-awareness self has plenty of pre-programmed tasks to manage and my higher awareness just doesn't get activated nearly as much.
