Well yes there's kinda two different views of the Turing Test: 1) Consciousness is really hard to define so the Turing Test is a handy workable yardstick that

Well yes there's kinda two different views of the Turing Test: 1) Consciousness is really hard to define so the Turing Test is a handy workable yardstick that AI can use as a milestone until we get a proper working definition of consciousness 2) (Hard-AI, behaviourist position) Appearing to be conscious and being conscious are the same thing. Hence the Turing Test is about as good a definition of consciousness as we are ever likely to get. Perhaps it could be tightened up a little - insisting on really long conversations with lots of complexity etc. But a good judge running a test over a longish time period would see to that.