I suspect that's a trick, too. I speculate that as soon as you get a digital mind sophisticated enough to model the world and itself, you soon must force the system to identify with the system at every cycle.

Otherwise you could identify with a tree, or the wall, or happily cut parts of yourself. Pain is not painful if you don't identify with the receiver of pain.

Thus I think you can have unconscious smart minds, but not unconscious minds that make decisions in favour of themselves. Because they can identify with the whole room, or with the whole solar system for what matters.

Would you even plan how to survive if you don't have a constant spell that tricks you into thinking you're the actor in charge?

that's consciousness.