We think ourselves as having a consciousness ... it's an odd one, and one that people are not yet ready to talk about. It's a bit like being in the Church of England- if you think you are, you are. But on the other hand, no one would deny that some people are more conscious than others, and that most people are more conscious than, say, all slugs (though we don't know, not having asked the slugs).

The mystery is that it "seems to" matter at all- it's an obvious evolutionary advantage to have a sense of me- ness, the unwillingness to let go of life that could ensure that you survive to reproduce when others have given up and perished. But at least as far as people are concerned, you can't deny that you "really" have that unitary sense without ruling yourself out of the argument. It's likely that resolution of the problem will require much deeper insights into the nature of reality.

For myself, I suspend judgement, and until some evidence otherwise turns up, I assume that consciousness is a property of matter in sufficiently organised systems. Note that the system does not have to be an individual living creature- I'm not ruling out the possibility of consciousness developing in electronic systems, or communities of non- conscious individuals, say a colony of termites. After all, the individula cells in our bodies are not conscious as far as we know.