Prologue: 

How and when and why life started will always be a mystery to us humans long after our species is all dead and gone away. The one thing we know is what form life first took was Bubbles, formed from RNA, DNA, Phospholipids and other random elements in the oceans. Now there are some in the scientific community who believe that even in this simple form of life consciousness was born simultaneously. Why or how this happened if at all is always going to be up in the air indefinitely. One cell formed possibly independently or more likely found another Bubble then merged in the first true step in evolution. Will there always be sentience, one thought it's always been here since the start or it happened much later when brains were more advanced. Whatever the case we know that intellect  and intelligence were born from Bubbles. How smart were the sentient Bubbles, more, equal or less than us? It’s also the thought of some that when life becomes complex and multicellular it is hard on the cells. As cells inherently want to function with the least amount of effort, so one day evolution may make a fool of us all. Only time will tell.