Consciousness is a Meme
Better summaries of The Origin of etc. are not forthcoming, but I found a nice thread in sci.anthropology: “Jaynes points out that a modern child if magically teleported back 3,000 to 4,000 years ago would grow up bicameral while a child from that era if teleported to today and raised would grow up conscious.” –Tom Bevington
Consciousness, to put it briefly, is a meme.