To talk about the universe being conscious in this sense, seems to be meaningless to me. I get this strange feeling that we are trying to force something that is vastly mysterious (numinous, not divine) into our world view of how lifeforms work on earth.
Reminds me of a fascinating discussion with Richard Dawkins from a while ago. If you can ignore the pseudo-scientific babble from Deepak Chopra and the annoying host, Dawkins makes some deeply interesting points worth thinking about.
The article is talking less about "does the Universe contain consciousness?" but more about "can non-biological things have consciousness?"
The author quotes a scientist who thinks stars that emit jets in a single direction might be doing so consciously. If that's the case, then the scientist raises the question if other non-biological things in the universe might be conscious.
It sounds like no one is taking this idea seriously, but some guy wants to test it just to rule it out.
Best sentence I've read all month
Consciousness is the only thing we can be certain of.
Maybe that lint was it, but probably not.
The 'existence' of our hands is perceived by our senses and filtered through consciousness. There is no way to prove that they actually exist outside of our minds.