I think this is correct. I'm reading a book about consciousness right now called The Hidden Spring (I'd highly recommend), and it seems like consciousness is fundamentally affect, and we all exist to try and minimize the free energy of our surroundings, so consciousness evolves in order to form a predictive hierarchy and avoid as many error signals as possible in a constantly changing environment. I think that most animals with a brain are conscious, as we all experience affect, and dream, and "choose" between different available states based on our perceived needs - key word "perceived", because perception is also unavoidably tied to consciousness, as all you perceive is compared to past data so you can more accurately choose the best action to minimize your free energy. I may be wrong, I can't say I know too much about microbiology, but I don't think microscopic organisms contain a brain or analogous structure that could house a mind to evolve consciousness; I think they're more like computers just taking in feedback and executing raw code.