Panpsychism argues that consciousness is not limited to peoples' brains or to living organisms but extends to all aspects of the universe and is not merely an emergent feature of complex biological systems. The word itself was coined by the Italian philosopher Francesco Patrizi in the sixteenth century, and derives from the two Greek words pan (all) and psyche (soul or mind). Panpsychism is a philosophical view that posits consciousness, or a mind-like aspect, as a fundamental and ubiquitous feature of all reality. It suggests that everything, from humans to rocks and even subatomic particles (or Mirrors!), possesses some level of consciousness. This idea challenges the traditional belief that only living beings have consciousness.
Philosophers like Plato have been associated with panpsychistic ideas. Recent interest in panpsychism has been fueled by the hard problem of understanding consciousness, by developments in neuroscience, by quantum mechanics, and a growing dissatisfaction with physicalist and classic approaches to consciousness.
It can be shown that a conscious being can distinguish definite perceptions and their quantum superpositions, while a physical measuring system without consciousness cannot distinguish such states.
In Furniture Sliders the Mirror combines both quantum mechanics, including superposition and entanglement, with panpsychism rendering the Mirror increasingly sentient (worryingly or dangerously so) over time.
There are many objections to the idea of panpsychism. Mostly around the lack of empirical proof. However, the following academic paper does explore the whole idea of quantum providing a basis for panpsychism.
