Maybe consciousness, as Lex said, is a communication trick which enables us not only to communicate in real time but to actually transcend the time scale of our lifetime, i.e., we are able to "communicate" with the humans of the future by means of different technology means (e.g. Art, writing, photos, videos, etc). This would in some sense imply that our particular capacities (tied to our time and space location) are able to resonate for as long as there is someone to decode the message. <br><br>I find these types of discussions incredibly engaging because there is some misery pleasure about not knowing the truth and just fantasizing about all the different hypothesis and ideas that people can manufacture.