I think it's probably something less than "conscious" but more than "dead matter". I like the ideas of Michael Levin and basal cognition. It avoids metaphysical

I think it's probably something less than "conscious" but more than "dead matter". I like the ideas of Michael Levin and basal cognition. It avoids metaphysical woo and just empirically demonstrates how certain types of cognition exist in biological organisms at multiple scales and in different problem spaces than we're used to. It doesn't get down to the atomic scale, but it's a step or two down in granularity from brains and nervous systems, so at least it's a start.