What people usually mean by consciousness relates to the issue of there being a seemingly pointless "inner you" watching all you do unfold. And while most associate that with intelligence, there's no real reason to believe that. A fly, bacteria, tree, or even a rock could potentially be conscious. Going the other direction it's also possible that the most brilliant human to live was not conscious.
The most relevant issue is that there's no necessity for this "you" to be inside of you. I would ostensibly still be me whether or not there was some entity here observing "me". And going full circle now, there's no reason for you to even really believe me when I say I have this "me" inside of me. After all, I could certainly make the exact same argument even without such an entity.
Would you want to challenge the "intelligence" of the network as a whole if it were say, armed and considered you a target?
Probably not, right?
Now, getting back to the insect/bacteria notion ...
You'd have to be in complete denial to not be aware that "TPTB" use cultural interactions to introduce things to at least some segment of the public consciousness that it may not be aware of as being within the realm of possibility/actuality of what's really going on in the world.
How do we know that things like insects, bacteria, etc., while seemingly "un-intelligent" on an individual unit scale, don't have a very different type of intelligence on a larger scale that is imperceptible to us as humans?
Keeping in mind that these things have been around for far longer than humans have and have gone through quite the evolutionary process.
We ASSUME that as the "latest" thing to come around as part of that process, surely we must be "the greatest".
What if we're just something developed by nature to be convenient hosts to other things?
Here is just one example of an arguably "more advanced", "more intelligent" life form being hijacked to not only further the interests of something arguably "less advanced, less intelligent", but to do so even to the point of the activity costing it its life: https://www.iflscience.com/parasitic-worms-manipulate-mantis...
Considering how "un-intelligent" humans can act when it comes to furthering their own interests as a species as a whole ... you get where this is going?
The most relevant issue is that there's no necessity for this "you" to be inside of you. I would ostensibly still be me whether or not there was some entity here observing "me". And going full circle now, there's no reason for you to even really believe me when I say I have this "me" inside of me. After all, I could certainly make the exact same argument even without such an entity.