Well...  we may never truly be able to feasibly define what consciousness is, with any modicum of accuracy or quantifiable success.  Still, I feel that one of the most significant characteristics of consciousness itself, is the questioning of just what exactly, is one's own consciousness, both from the windowsill of one's own awareness of being and the interconnected nature of consciousness, at large.

Perhaps the burning query and the enactment of such searching and pondering, are indeed, the very answer to the question itself?  We seem to destined to ask why,  even before we arrive at the apex of said pondering.  8)