I consider everything to be conscious, Bill...even atoms. But not everything is capable of expressing that consciousness in a way that is clearly recognizable. A plant, for example, cannot speak audibly. It can move, but only so slowly (and in such a limited way) that we don't see it, except when we use time-lapse film and speed it up. Thus, a plant is not capable of expressing its consciousness in a way that is immediately recognizable to a human being...but...they do react to things in an intelligent manner.

I consider atoms to be alive. All atoms.

That life is what I call "God" (if I want to), and that life never ends, it just keeps changing from various forms into various other forms. I think it's intelligent and aware, not accidental, and I think it is a single unity expressing itself as uncountable numbers of individual and apparently separate forms, right down to the atomic level.