There is the notion of panpsychism: that consciousness defined in the basic sense is extant everywhere, all the time, in many varied forms and scopes. By the de

There is the notion of panpsychism: that consciousness defined in the basic sense is extant everywhere, all the time, in many varied forms and scopes. By the definitions above, awareness would be restricted to those systems which could reasonably be considered "cognitive", and sentience would belong only to those who can conceptualize "cogito ergo sum".