Yes - for the origin of consciousness, look at the simplest organisms - protozoans like slime mould on a rock under the sea 4 billion years ago.
In the morning, the slime mould colony positions itself on the western side of the rock to maximise exposure to solar energy coming from the east.
As the day grows long and the sun moves overhead and then to the western horizon, members of the slime mould colony on the edges detect the variation in radiant solar energy and, at thresholds, issue the command to move.
The cells on the south west edge of the rock cannot just move towards the north and then the west, because all the other cells are in their way. So they have to initiate a communication. "Move". The neighbouring cells in the colony begin to move.
Eventually, the message propagates to the other edge of the colony and the whole colony moves. It keeps moving until the new position of the centre of the colony reaches equilibrium for the radiant energy of the sun in its then position.
We can say in the aggregate that the colony moved because it felt like it. To say that is to ascribe "consciousness" to a blob. But really this was just the result of sensors in individual cells registering a drop in radiant energy reception, followed by a communication to move, followed by a behaviour, terminated by a new homeostasis when the sensors again reached a threshold.
In the morning, the slime mould colony positions itself on the western side of the rock to maximise exposure to solar energy coming from the east.
As the day grows long and the sun moves overhead and then to the western horizon, members of the slime mould colony on the edges detect the variation in radiant solar energy and, at thresholds, issue the command to move.
The cells on the south west edge of the rock cannot just move towards the north and then the west, because all the other cells are in their way. So they have to initiate a communication. "Move". The neighbouring cells in the colony begin to move.
Eventually, the message propagates to the other edge of the colony and the whole colony moves. It keeps moving until the new position of the centre of the colony reaches equilibrium for the radiant energy of the sun in its then position.
We can say in the aggregate that the colony moved because it felt like it. To say that is to ascribe "consciousness" to a blob. But really this was just the result of sensors in individual cells registering a drop in radiant energy reception, followed by a communication to move, followed by a behaviour, terminated by a new homeostasis when the sensors again reached a threshold.