Stellar plasma supports long-lived, self-organizing magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) structures whose coupled electromagnetic and fluid dynamics implement distributed information processing. Sentience would supervene on these MHD attractors rather than on matter in a solid or neural form.
Thanks for the reply. I wonder what sort of stimulus such a system would be capable of perceiving. I suppose the context is so different that very little of my intuition about "life" could be applied productively.
Stimulus is the most interesting question. Is there anything that can reach from other stars to our sun without completely being overwhelmed by its own signals? Would it rely on planets as antennae? Calling that speculation would be an understatement;)