this post was submitted on 12 Jun 2026
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We May Be Surrounded by Trillions of Conscious Beings, Research Suggests—And They Aren’t Human (www.popularmechanics.com)
submitted 5 days ago by overstep8556@jlai.lu to c/science@lemmy.world
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[–] Miller@lemmy.world 61 points 5 days ago (4 children)

Is this the game where we stretch the meaning of words beyond usefulness to force an exciting story. Consciousness is a peculiar state, if everything is then nothing is, is that the point of the exercise.

[–] Hegar@fedia.io 22 points 5 days ago (1 children)

People stretch the word "consciousness" to include things like free-will, human-level intelligence, articulating an understanding of the world, having ideologies, etc.

It's very close to the classical greek word ψυχή, soul, from where we get psyche. And very close to how many christians have understood "soul".

But often scientific inquiry leads us to realize how fictional and self-serving our understandings are. Souls aren't real and consciousness in the brain is just an information sorting process.

Much of life may exhibit that process to some degree. Unsurprising, really - information sorting as complex as ours should have precursors.

[–] Valmond@lemmy.dbzer0.com 5 points 3 days ago (1 children)

Still we don't know how consciousness functions, so how come you figure it's a "sorting process"?

[–] Hegar@fedia.io -1 points 3 days ago (1 children)

I'm summarizing my understanding of these panpsychism type theories.

[–] Valmond@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 points 2 days ago

So, "gut feeling"

[–] givesomefucks@lemmy.world 1 points 5 days ago (2 children)

Is this the game where we stretch the meaning of words beyond usefulness to force an exciting story. Consciousness is a peculiar state, if everything is then nothing is, is that the point of the exercise.

No, you just don't know what you're talking about...

A simple aromatic ring can experience two states and prefer one or the other, they're not only a basic conciouness, but they're OCD too. Whichever state they prefer, they start organizing shit like that. And that leads to biological life.

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-022-10068-4

That paper covers a lot of what you'll need to know for that to make sense.

But that's also why true alien life is a 50/50 death sentence no matter what, if they have "left hand biology" any contamination would be a total wipeout. At the base level the new addition would outcompete the host base level, because nothing would be capable of using it as food.

Like that shit in the 80s with Revinar, it was an HIV medication that was liquid, however a crystalline molecule was created accidentally. Which made an entire production facility inoperable, no matter what they did they kept getting crystals not liquid.

Then it started spreading to other facilities and they could track it from specific people moving between locations.

Because just a single molecule in a lab was enough to make all future distiliations copy it.

Revinar is like a brick mansions, "left hand biology" is the scale of a single brick.

And an Aromatic ring can just be some kid who spends all day making little bricks for fun.

[–] TriplePlaid@wetshav.ing 8 points 5 days ago (3 children)

Got a source for this "Revinar" crystal business? I wasn't able to find what you are mentioning when I search for it, and it conflicts with my understanding of chemistry.

[–] givesomefucks@lemmy.world 14 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago) (1 children)

In general:

It is hypothesized that contact with a single microscopic seed crystal of the new polymorph can be enough to start a chain reaction causing the transformation of a much larger mass of material.[5] Widespread contamination with such microscopic seed crystals may lead to the impression that the original polymorph has "disappeared". In a few cases, such as progesterone and paroxetine hydrochloride, the disappearance gradually spread across the world, and it is suspected that it is because Earth's atmosphere has over time become permeated with tiny seed crystals. It is believed that seeds as small as a few million molecules (about 10−15 grams) are sufficient for converting one morph to another, making unwanted disappearance of morphs particularly difficult to prevent.[3] It is hypothesized that "unintentional seeding" may also be responsible for a related phenomenon, where a previously difficult-to-crystallize compound becomes easier to crystallize over time.[5]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disappearing_polymorph

The actual thing I was thinking of and not my butchered spelling:

During development—ritonavir was introduced in 1996—only the crystal form now called form I was found; however, in 1998, a lower free energy,[54] more stable polymorph, form II, was discovered. This more stable crystal form was less soluble, which resulted in significantly lower bioavailability. The compromised oral bioavailability of the drug led to temporary removal of the oral capsule formulation from the market.[53] As a consequence of the fact that even a trace amount of form II can result in the conversion of the more bioavailable form I into form II, the presence of form II threatened the ruin of existing supplies of the oral capsule formulation of ritonavir; and indeed, form II was found in production lines, effectively halting ritonavir production.[52] Abbott withdrew the capsules from the market, and prescribing physicians were encouraged to switch to a Norvir suspension.[55] It has been estimated that Abbott lost more than US$250 million as a result, and the incident is often cited as a high-profile example of disappearing polymorphs.[56]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ritonavir

But thanks for actually asking.

And sorry I guess for being off a decade, names and dates aren't as easy for me as concepts and science.

[–] heydo@lemmy.world 4 points 5 days ago

There was a recent Verstasium video about it.

[–] gandalf_der_12te@feddit.org 1 points 4 days ago

this is like the thing about prions which are proteins that make other proteins fold into a copy of themselves, thereby spreading.

they're not alive as we understand it (they don't have genetic code), they're just a single big molecule copying itself all over the world.

another example, as you've already said, is crystals growing over time (metabolism) in aequous solutions.

[–] gandalf_der_12te@feddit.org -1 points 4 days ago (1 children)

Consciousness is a peculiar state, if everything is then nothing is, is that the point of the exercise.

nah i don't think that everything is conscious but all living beings are.

[–] Miller@lemmy.world 2 points 4 days ago (1 children)

My point is that if you do accept that human consciousness is a special case then you would still need a word for that level of sentience, and why not keep consciousness as that word and find another for the more general appreciation of environment that non-human terrestrial organisms possess. In truth I think there is already a word for that general condition and the word is life, I think an awareness of your place and a feeling for its beauty is a defining characteristic of all life.

[–] Hegar@fedia.io 2 points 3 days ago

I think part of the idea of this theory is that much of life shares the key elements that make up the scientific definition of consciousness.

I personally don't see value in preserving the popular definition of consciousness as the human soul, but regardless of personal takes i hope we can agree that scientific theories should be based on the scientific use of the term.