[justanotherjoe]

absent mindedness is still conscious tho. And sleepwalking is not the level of function im talking. You can't do your job while sleepwalking. I'm not convinced humans can do intelligent work without being conscious. No such states that i've seen anyways.

[_akhe]

It's a very good point - that consciousness may be necessary for certain tasks like recognizing faces, counting, reading, etc. (whatever it may be).