Agobot,
Exactly. It seems we are the cognitive aparatus of the universe, with all the absurd implications of this statement. The 109 elements in the Mendeleev table combined in such a way that a carefully selected bunch of atoms/us/ could develop consciouness towards the other atoms found elsewhere in the Universe.
Yup, we call it "evolution". The evidence that it occurred is multidisciplinary & extremely strong. Ergo conciousnes evolved.
Mark
There are 10 kinds of people in this world; those that understand binary, & those that don't