Are you saying that consciousness didn’t result from, survival of the fittest, evolutionary pressure but more of a byproduct of a larger brain (network)? Like it emerged because of a larger network but was not selected for through evolution. That makes sense to me. Humans have a grotesquely large brain compared to other animals.

Edit: I wonder if there are studies that have determined whether or not new born infants are self aware or does it take time for it to emerge after the brain has been trained on its environment for a while