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In reality, the "conscious" part of the processing that happens in the brain is just a [small] part. There is so much more that is going on.

The way I think about it is that the brain is a massively, self organizing processing unit where consciousness/attention runs on just one thread (try consciously thinking about two things at once :) ). Most of the processing, including vital operations that are needed to keep up alive (eg breathing, heart operation, the myriad of hormonal regulation feedback loops, memory organization and consolidation) are happening under the hood and we don't have access to that part.