Epistemic status: This is an overly confident, unpolished draft that needs more research, but a type of research I'm not good at, I guess. I rather post it now and see if it resonates. 

There could be many entities around us that are conscious without us noticing. This is because we don't have a clear, testable theory of consciousness. How would know if the Pando forest is conscious^[1]? Consciousness is still a muddled concept and has many competing theories that cover multiple layers of abstraction and involve multiple aspects or attributes entities must have to be considered conscious. Here, I am interested in some aspects of consciousness common in many theories of consciousness^[2] and want to illustrate how some unusual entities may actually possess them. 

1. Perception: The ability to detect, interpret, and respond to stimuli from the environment.
2. Perceptual Processing and Attention: The filtering and focusing mechanism that determines which stimuli are prioritised for further processing.
3. Stable Awareness Patterns: Sustained cognitive focus and recognition of consistent patterns within perceived information.^[3]
4. Self-Perception: The capacity to reflect on and recognise oneself as a distinct entity with unique characteristics.
5. Response to Events: The enactment of actions or changes in behavior in reaction to perceived events or stimuli.
6. (Episodic) Memory Formation: The process of encoding, storing, and retrieving personal experiences and events.
7. Intentionality and Goals: The conscious direction of thoughts and actions toward achieving desired outcomes.
8. Learning and Adaptation: The ability to incorporate new information and experiences to modify behaviors and understanding.
9. Communication: The exchange of information using verbal, written, or non-verbal methods to convey meaning.
10. Expressing Emotions: The articulation or display of feelings through various expressive means.
11. Theory of Mind: The capability to attribute mental states to oneself and others, understanding that others have perspectives and intentions distinct from one's own.

It turns out that many aspects of consciousness can be found in entities that are very unlike human beings.

This post was originally inspired by a discussion wheter LLMs could be conscious. I see the behavioral analogs in LLM outputs, but had trouble reconciling the rsulting claims with some elements that I intuitively felt necessary for consciousness. I do think the structures that give rise to consciousness in humans have at least partial functionally analogs in other agentic entities such as LLMs. But to be more thorugh, lets analyse the presence of a comprehensive set of attributes of consciousness in the following entities:

1. Persons: Humans possess cognitive abilities that allow for independent thought, perception, decision-making, and interaction with their environment and others.
2. Countries: Nations are complex socio-political entities with collective identities, governance systems, and mechanisms to interact both domestically and internationally.
3. Hofstadter's Anthill (see page 164): An ant colony functions as a decentralized system where collaborative behavior emerges from simple interactions of individual ants of limited consciousness, resulting in collective decision-making and adaptation. This hypothetical entity is offered as an aid to intuition that distributed entities can be conscious without the constituent elements being conscious.
4. Large Language Models: LLMs that use vast datasets to interactively process and generate human-like text, performing tasks based on patterns and learned representations.

Countries

If countries have self-consciousness, it is independent of the self-consciousness of its members. Countries frequently state their right to exist and this is often recognized by other countries. This requires a self-model. This is also obvious from the theory of mind of countries: Countries can model other countries as independent agents and negotiate on that level. Contrary to claims that the intentions are purely a result of the individual's goals, it turns out that a countries intentions can be independent from the self-consciousness of a country’s citizens. There are many cases where the official agents (the voice) of a country expressed recognitions of statehood that was different from the personal preferences of the individual speakers, including in cases where these were representatives of the state in questions (examples are the Yugoslavia breakup and  the Spanish civil war).

Gradual Group Consciousness

There is a corollary: Group consciousness must occur gradually in groups of increasing size.

There is a smooth transition from individuals to small groups to organisations and countries. At which point does consciousness appear? I think this continuum implie that there is no definite point. I think this is comparable to human consciousness development: At which point in the development of a child does consciousness start? Or at least: At which point does self-consciousness start?  

ADDED 2025-05-07:

Two concrete worked examples^[4].

1. Military Vessel in the Baltic Sea
A U.S. surveillance system detects a Russian naval vessel operating near NATO waters. The detection initiates a cascade of responses across U.S. defence and diplomatic systems: intelligence analysts prioritise the signal, military planners simulate intent, and public communications signal deterrence. The U.S., as a coherent state actor, interprets the vessel's presence as a challenge to its strategic identity and alliance commitments. Its responses - military maneuvers, diplomatic messages, and strategic adjustments - are framed for peer entities (Russia, NATO), expressing its self-perceived role and expectations of others.

2. Wildfire in Los Angeles
A large wildfire devastates parts of Southern California, triggering not only a domestic emergency response but also international attention. California, depending on framing, interprets the disaster as part of its global climate identity. Communications emphasise leadership or failure, federal responses are symbolically amplified, and the event becomes embedded in long-term national and international memory. Messaging and actions are aimed at other nations, climate coalitions, and non-state actors projecting values and expectations of the .

1. ^{^}

   I don't know if the Pando forest is conscious. Some of the listed attributes are just not known and not easily testable for such entities. But I think it is a good example of a non-trivial entity that might be conscious.

2. ^{^}

   I compiled attributes from different theories and also asked ChatGPT for additional suggestions.

3. ^{^}

   See also Consciousness As Recursive Reflections

4. ^{^}

   The scenarios are mine, but the summary and formatting are largely by ChatGPT. I have reviewed and adapted most sentences.