It seems like a node/network issue? Which if one takes it from an Eastern, contextual point of view, misses the context.

We like to distill problems down to their “essence” and it does seem consciousness exists in the head, but could this have to do with the primacy of vision and abstract thinking, as human talents?

Consider the concept of time; As mobile, intentional creatures, with a narrative based culture, the passage of time, from past to future, is foundational to our sense of reality, but the simple fact is that change turns future to past. Tomorrow becomes yesterday, because the earth turns. There is no literal dimension of time, because the past is consumed by the present, in order to inform and drive it. Aka, causality and conservation of energy. Cause becomes effect.

So the energy is conserved, because it is always and only present, since its changing configuration creates the effect of time in the first place. Making it more like temperature, pressure, color, sound, than space. Think frequencies and amplitudes. Although energy drives the wave, while frequency and amplitude are just the forms manifested by it, rising and falling. Future to past.

So the energy, as process, goes past to future, while the patterns generated go future to past. As consciousness goes past to future, while thoughts and feelings go future to past.

Yet it is our digestive, respiratory and circulatory systems processing the energy, while the central nervous system sorts through the forms/information being generated. The gut/heart versus the head.

So it would seem that consciousness functions like an energy. The flame within, seeking fuel to burn. While the function of the mind is more to referee all the various desires bubbling up, than it is to create this sentience.

?