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jimmy comments on To what degree do we have goals? - Less Wrong
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Who says your "unconscious" is stupid and doesn't have reflectively consistent preferences? Certain parts, yes. Others, no.
Hell, there are people with entire alternate personalities that they aren't aware of living inside their heads. You've been using addicts as an example for a 'ego dystonic' urge that isn't a preference. Why then do addicts have such a hard time checking themselves into rehab?
Can you give an example? If your conscious can find a way to negotiate with your unconscious for mutual gain, there is nothing wrong with that but, unless that happens, your conscious' actions have no reason to strive toward your unconscious' goals.
Well, I gave two. DID and addiction both seem to fit the bill for me, but meta akrasia, self deception about what you're optimizing for also seem to meet the criteria in general.
I personally have had success with bargaining solutions that I didn't have otherwise (although sometimes I was able to get away with breaking the deal)
Those parts of brains hardly act intelligently on such preferences. They are unable to use long-term or complex plans. They are also time inconsistent, which doesn't make them irrational* but does make them bad trading partners.
*Rational time inconsistent agents would self-modify to be time consistent, but humans have limited self-modification abilities. The fact that the unconscious does not try to improve its ability to self-modify is one piece of evidence of its irrationality.