this post was submitted on 22 Feb 2026
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I don't think we can say that about consciousness for sure, but I agree with your broader point that it doesn't have self-awareness or a sense of horror at its predicament.
This could actually host a very interesting rudimentary form of consciousness that is theorized by some theories of consciousness, especially idealist models like panpsychism or analytic idealism (though I do admit that analytic idealism would phrase it in terms of having a mental state instead of being conscious).
There's also the question of why would it experience horror? It's not exactly in pain, and they way they make the eyes grow is just to add the hormone signal that makes eyes grow when developing.
So from its perspective, it just got told to make eyes, so it has rudimentary eyes now. Hardly the most horrifying existence.