You all seem talking as if consciousness is a Boolean, rather than a float number, which is likely the case. This has been strongly hinted by scientific researc

You all seem talking as if consciousness is a Boolean, rather than a float number, which is likely the case. This has been strongly hinted by scientific research on some types of (non-human) primates: those who when exposed to mirrors are able identify themselves as the ones in the reflection. Is also testable on kids: before the age of 3 they are unable to identify themselves as the people in any reflection. They slowly acquire this ability plus all the other traits we cluster in the word "consciousness"; including things such as conscious self-preservation, language, adaptive/abstract thinking, etc. >If the idea bothers you that things might exist that are incapable of being verified consensually by society This is nitpicking: But it depends way to heavily in what "society" means here, there is still people who believe heart is 6000 years old; so is never all people. the majority of people knows nothing about nuclear physics, and that doesn't make it false nor non-science.