Before we can answer that question, don't we need a method for determining whether an entity is conscious? As far as I know, such a method doesn't exist yet. W

Before we can answer that question, don't we need a method for determining whether an entity is conscious? As far as I know, such a method doesn't exist yet. We have no way of verifying if other entities are conscious. I'd settle for a more mundane goal than "consciousness:" reliable machine intelligence.