Prokaryotes, the simplest unicellular species, display behaviors that are clearly cognitive in nature including associative learning, stable memory formation, route navigation and decision-making. They anticipate upcoming events and readily create functional social collectives, within which they display both cooperation and competition and, fascinatingly, a primitive form of altruism where some cells in a colony put themselves at risk to support the life functions of other cells in distress (Reber et al, 2023).

What if consciousness is not this grand thing that we evolve into through complexity, but a most basic aspect of life? What does it mean to accept a fruit fly is just as conscious as you are?

Since I had a conversation about this with my partner, my brain has been reforming my outlook on many things. I have always believed this, but having scientific basis for it and talking about it out loud with another person made it feel much more real. I've found myself looking at a spider on its web and truly feeling that we are equals.