This sounds a bit controversial:-
"Most scientists believe that #consciousness came after life, as a product of evolution. But observations of extraterrestrial organic material, along with #RogerPenrose and #StuartHameroff ’s quantum theory of consciousness, provide reason to believe that consciousness came before life. In fact, argue #Hameroff and his collaborators, consciousness may have been what made evolution and life possible in the first place."
https://iai.tv/articles/life-and-consciousness-what-are-they-auid-2836
@jgordon I wonder how that will affect #Penrose and #Hameroff
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orchestrated_objective_reduction
"Orchestrated objective reduction (Orch OR) is a highly controversial theory postulating that consciousness originates at the quantum level inside neurons (rather than being a product of neural connections)."