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Not necessarily self-consciousness. But I do see that as existing by increasing degrees as a function of complexity. I'd say that rudimentary self-consciousness is an integral aspect of intelligence and that it exists in all things - and is quite discernable in living things. The fact that it is quantifiable in the animal kingdom is not so revolutionary a statement as it once was, for example.
At its most rudimentary level it seems to me to be the actual ordering principle that informs the material and energetic universe. Why do I take that speculative leap? Because as I stated, the notion that something in the universe that is as pervasive as intelligence and consciousness (yes, starting with our assessment of ourselves, of course) can not simply arise de novo if it were not pre-existing in some primitive state. That's the most likely option, as far as I'm concerned. I think what we are dealing with are certain threshold levels of an ordinary property of the universe. The issue as I see it, is ultimately one of redefining the concept because it has been far too anthropomorphized in the past. That is the blinder that is obfuscating our conceptions and what limits our ability to see it operating everywhere.
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create evolution
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