Sentience

Sentience is the biological ability to be conscious. Also called "primary consciousness" or "basal consciousness", sentience is any type of set of experiences or feelings. In philosophical terms, sentience is described as qualia - "something it is like to be". For example, the question "what is it like to be a cat" makes sense since a cat has and a mind and the consequent experiences, but asking "what is it like to be a chair" doesn't make sense, because we can't imagine being non-individuals.