Renaissance-child t1_j14wjcr wrote
I find it extremely unlikely, due to consciousness being more an amalgamation of sensory interpretation and numerous different processes all taking place at the same time.
I am not an authority on the matter, by any means, but from my understanding of research conducted by others who are more qualified, “consciousness” is the result of a combination of assorted processes, requiring a more complex brain than what could fit in a microscopic organism.
Since intelligence, and sentience, require some kind of independent judgment capacity, I would see this sort of advanced consciousness as a prerequisite.
Adenidc t1_j152wjz wrote
I think this is correct. I'm reading a book about consciousness right now called The Hidden Spring (I'd highly recommend), and it seems like consciousness is fundamentally affect, and we all exist to try and minimize the free energy of our surroundings, so consciousness evolves in order to form a predictive hierarchy and avoid as many error signals as possible in a constantly changing environment. I think that most animals with a brain are conscious, as we all experience affect, and dream, and "choose" between different available states based on our perceived needs - key word "perceived", because perception is also unavoidably tied to consciousness, as all you perceive is compared to past data so you can more accurately choose the best action to minimize your free energy. I may be wrong, I can't say I know too much about microbiology, but I don't think microscopic organisms contain a brain or analogous structure that could house a mind to evolve consciousness; I think they're more like computers just taking in feedback and executing raw code.
Renaissance_Slacker t1_j158hom wrote
If you could build mechanisms out of proteins and other large molecules you could fit a lot of processing and storage inside a bacteria. Clusters of these bio computers might display emergent intelligence like a hive of insects.
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