What if consciousness isn't confined to brains like ours? Philosophers Eric Schwitzgebel and Jeremy Pober argue that conscious experience could arise in many different life forms—even beings built from radically different materials than anything on Earth. In a universe that vast, filled with countless possible alien civilizations, assuming only Earth-like biology can support consciousness would be surprisingly Earth-centric. Their conclusion: the universe might be hiding minds stranger than we can imagine.

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