Go to my recent post on plant sentient at Arcade to see some humanists wrestling with the novel idea that consciousness is a very low level phenomenon, not some bonus prize for being highly evolved. (This is what distinguishes the OOO view of mind from panpsychism.) There's an interesting discussion in the comments section, which you're welcome to join by commenting here—I'll try to bundle the comments and post on them at Arcade.
Suffice it to say, absolutely agree. Drafted rather a long response to this here, then thought it better placed in my own blog space > http://leaflettering.wordpress.com/2011/01/29/perhaps-sentience-might-mean-sapience/
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