consciousness requires some kind of underlying mental processes
Assuming you mean cognition, this is essentially the opposite of the idea of panexperientialism, or at least not compatible.
Assuming you mean cognition, this is essentially the opposite of the idea of panexperientialism, or at least not compatible.
Thus, a single atom cannot be conscious. It could at a stretch be regarded as a miniature body, perhaps, but could it contain a memory system? Presumably not.
The universe is one giant state machine with the memory of it's current state and it's current state deciding what to invoke next.