The conscious you, in effect, is like a not terribly bright CEO, whose subordinates do all of the research, draft all of the documents, then lay them out and say, “Sign here, sir.” The CEO does—and takes the credit.
“The information we perceive in our consciousness is not created by conscious thought,” Morsella said in a statement accompanying the release of the paper. “Nor is it reacted to by conscious processes. Consciousness is the middle-man and it doesn’t do as much work as you think.”
Why You're Pretty Much Unconscious Most of the Time
This is pretty much my view. Humans could probably function at a fairly high level without the conscious self stepping in. In fact I suspect conscious self awareness rarely steps in. Just to make the occasional decision when the subconscious mind lack sufficient information to make the correct decision. We choose not based on what reality is but on what we imagine reality could be. This allows us to create, innovate, appreciate, glorify the self.
I suppose ego is a good word for it as it is all about the self and it's presumed mastery over the universe.
We the body dies, the self has such great importance to the universe that it has created a mythology about how the self is immortal. The God/The Creator of the Universe has a relationship with the self. That without the self, the universe has no meaning.
I think the reverse is true. Consciousness, besides some obvious survival benefits has no importance to the universe. We could function quite well without it.