Again. Consciousness, in anything like the present acceptation of the term, having been once a new thing—a thing, as far as we…

“Again. Consciousness, in anything like the present acceptation of the term, having been once a new thing—a thing, as far as we can see, subsequent even to an individual centre of action and to a reproductive system (which we see existing in plants without apparent consciousness)—why may not there arise some new phase of mind which shall be as different from all present known phases, as the mind of animals is from that of vegetables?”

–Samuel Butler, Erewhon. 1872