Consciousness and being are the same, but respective presence or absence of a connotation of self-reflection makes them appear entirely different. The point is to understand that there is nothing self-referential about consciousness, while everything of life and mind is entirely within the sphere of unbounded recursion. It doesn't need to signify or represent for this to take place but does so by virtue of its constitution in consciousness. It would work just as well without consciousness except that it would be. All the equations written down but with no fire in them.