Blindsight, by Peter Watts, is a good, sci-fi fiction meditation on the pitfalls / dubious value of consciousness / self awareness.. if you haven’t read it, I would recommend it - it’s a dense, perhaps ‘dry’ read for some - but very rewarding nonetheless IMO.
Seconding this. I recommend Blindsight whenever the subject of consciousness—specifically lack thereof—comes up. It basically asks the question "What would it mean for there to be an intelligent species that was not conscious?"
Even more relevant now with LLMs (not that they're an "intelligent species." But a lot of people seem to think they are)
[1] https://www.reddit.com/r/printSF/comments/y19ck8/i_finally_r...
[2] https://www.reddit.com/r/printSF/comments/1fze6sx/blindsight...