We need new words to describe what the brain does!

Words reflect our mental models, or at least the mental models when they came into use. The sun "rises" and "sets" because the concepts of sunrise and sunset come from a time when people thought that the sun orbits the earth rather than the earth revolving around its axis. We describe Europe and Asia as separate continents from a time in which geographical models were limited to a small part of the world. Out names for the months come from Roman times and the names of the days come from Roman and Norse cultures.

It seems to me that our language about brain and mind, awareness, consciousness, and thinking need to be updated with improving understanding of the brain in order to clear our thinking about thinking.

Modern understanding of the brain sees it as very complex, with many layers of processing. Even when we are "unconscious" parts of the brain are working to maintain life. "Sleep" is not a single state but a set of states with different brain function.

We use the term "unconscious" as if it were a place, while it implies brain activity which (probably like most brain activity) is not done consciously.

We say that we receive sensory input of which we are "not aware". On the other hand, if something occurs in sensory input that some portion of the brain perceives as worthy of attention, it is brought to our attention. Thus, in some sense we are "subconsciously aware" of the input. But that appears to be an oxymoron, a contradiction in terms as we use "subconscious" and "aware".

There is a condition called "agnosia" in which the brain is unable to attach meaning some kind of sensory input.  Aphasia, for example, is a form of agnosia in which language ability fails in some way. "Agnosonosia" is a condition in which a person does not know that they are subject to some form of agnosia, perceiving his/her brain function as normal when others perceive it as failing in some form of comprehension. I guess that would be being unconscious of some are of which one was unconscious.

See the problem with the language we use?