Metabolizing biological life is a good place where to draw the line: we have no instance of presumed conscious behavior that is also not metabolizing. So when I

Metabolizing biological life is a good place where to draw the line: we have no instance of presumed conscious behavior that is also not metabolizing. So when I say "like me", that's the dimension I'm considering, which then includes a whole lot of biological life, yes. Conscious means that it feels like something to be the conscious being. There is a perceived inner life, which doesn't stop when sensorial inputs stop (if you ever have the chance to visit a sensory deprivation chamber, you can test this claim). Cognition (meta-consciousness, self-reflectivity) develops on that. That's the main difference between simple life forms and us (still a gradient, but we appear to be at the known edge of that spectrum). I am with you that this is not scientifically testable. At the same time, or rather, because of that, we have to be reasonable and acknowledge our observations. Again, it's either that or solipsism, which is ridiculous and crashes against other intractable problems immediately.