Does it make sense to speak of "Universal Consciousness" or "Universal Intelligence"?

[Chas]

Yes, I utterly disagree. Your argument is absurd.

You forgot to say, "You have no evidence to support your thought experiment." OR to acknowledge that I gave a sensible alternative-- that there is a "critical mass" of complexity under which a system could (non-arbitrarily, mind you) no longer be said to have even a tiny spark of awareness. You know what would be fun? Since you so confidently assert what mind is-- a function of complexity-- then YOU explain why you think this to be so, and precisely what kind and amount of complexity is required.

I'm sorry you value evidence so little. I don't know what that threshold is, and I have no problem saying so.

What is absurd is considering one or two neurons to be sufficiently complex to host 'awareness'.

It appears there is a threshold and a scale. That sort of thing is quite common in nature.
There are many sizes of stars but there is a mass threshold below which a ball of hydrogen won't start fusing hydrogen to helium.

We only see mind in the complex structures we call brains.
And we see degrees of consciousness and self-awareness correlate strongly to brain size - body mass ratio (encephalization quotient). One or two neurons doesn't make a brain.