Incidentally I am reminded of the disturbing science fiction novel Blindsight by Peter Watts, which explores (fictional insight only, of course!) similar ideas.

I just read through that in one long sitting, profoundly existentially terrifying and disturbingly enthralling. Excellent book, but, irrationally, I really hope there's a good counter-argument to it somewhere.

Shiver. I need some chocolate now.

Edit Ended up watching "My little pony," the perfect anti-despair superstimulus. Thinking about it further I suspect theres something to be said in favour of self-awareness in terms of type one and type two processes, self awareness being energy expensive but actually making better decisions, but I don't know enough cognitive science to be sure.