It's an outsider view, but it is thought provoking, worth digesting. The mechanism and data (both historic and current) are more concrete than other theories of consciousness I'm aware of (although I'm no expert).

Consciousness might not be as essential to the human experience as is generally believed now a days. What percentage of the day are we really engaged in conscious rational thought anyways? And is it really what makes us human, or do subconscious processes play a much bigger role in the human experience than reason?