We May Be Surrounded by Trillions of Conscious Beings, Research Suggests—And They Aren’t Human
(www.popularmechanics.com)
Sounds a little hippy to me but 'there are more things in Heaven and Earth than are dreamt of in your philosophy' so if it is the case we will still need a word for what consciousness did mean. Why not leave consciousness alone and find a new word to mean the interconnectedness of grifting ideas to make a living.