More disturbing: if/when we reach the day when an AI told us, "I'm conscious, I have feelings, the lights are on, it is like something to be me": how would we k

More disturbing: if/when we reach the day when an AI told us, "I'm conscious, I have feelings, the lights are on, it is like something to be me": how would we know if that were actually the case? There are people continually grinding on the Hard Problem, and seeking ways to measure whatever consciousness is; perhaps someday we'll have an empirical test. If that day never arrives, it opens an interesting philosophical question: how important is it that the species that inherits the galaxy has the lights turned on? Is intelligence/complexity which lacks subjective experience still an inherent good? Who knows, maybe we could wind up with a benevolent AI network (akin to Iain Banks' Culture) who seeds and maintains biological life in their optimal planetary habitats, because for whatever reason, real consciousness only arises in nucleotide wetware. Or: maybe that already happened, and our galactic AI is really really good at staying hidden. ;)