As NASA’s rover, Curiosity was closing in on the red planet on its mission to search for signs of life on the desiccated surface of Mars, a sea-change in our understanding of life on this planet was taking place with considerably less fanfare. On the 7th of July at the grandly named Francis Crick Memorial Conference a group of prominent scientists issued The Cambridge Declaration on Consciousness. The declaration stated that all mammals, birds and a number of other life forms, including the octopus are conscious.  At its most basic, this is an acknowledgement that animals can think and feel, and are capable of abstract thoughts, just like us.  Anybody who has ever kept a cat or dog as a pet will wonder why this was deemed necessary.