In practice I don't disagree with anything you said. But in theory, I'm not really sure (and none of us are). There are sea creatures (jellyfish?) that have di

In practice I don't disagree with anything you said. But in theory, I'm not really sure (and none of us are). There are sea creatures (jellyfish?) that have distributed nervous systems throughout their body. They exhibit complex reactions and behaviors we'd expect of a complex animal but have no central "brain". Similarly plants respond to stimuli, turn and twist to move towards light, send out chemical distress signals to other plants when injured / being eaten... Does that mean they have a non-traditional form of "nervous system" as well? If someone forced me to choose, I'd clearly say plants aren't conscious. But I had to provide a strong justification I had to stick behind, I couldn't argue why they (or the jellyfish) are or aren't conscious, nor about an ant or butterfly. At some point we may have to declare consciousness outside of the realm of science, as there is no objective test for it. Ie distinguish between consciousness and simulated consciousness or reflexive responses. And that's very disappointing to a scientifically curious person like me.