Science

To be fair... We have created societies, developed uniquely complex languages across the whole world and then managed to learn each other's languages, we write books and online posts to transmit knowledge through generations, we have managed to take over a good chunk of the earth and destroyed most of the nature in it, and we can develop technology like no other species... We have even gone to space! I do think we are pretty special in many ways. Not everything is good, but we are still special.

Consciousness, though? I suspect that the underlying phenomenon is fundamental. I don't think that there is an 'on/off' switch that gets triggered only after some information processing threshold is exceeded. But maybe it does, we have no way of measuring this. All I can say is that my guess can't be much better or worse than any other guess.

Human brain is the most complex thing in the universe that we know of so I'd say we're somewhat special. This however doesn't change the fact that a rat's brain ranks pretty high up on that list aswell.

I was working out how to reply without saying we’re ‘dehumanising’ animals, but apparently even the language we use dismisses other animals in that way.

Hard agree... Learning to communicate well with a cat teaches you most of this, and the rest becomes obvious when you realize how individual their personality and behaviour is compared to others of the same species.

That is true, the whole field is difficult to define using language.

Usually I interpret "consciousness' to mean 'qualia', but even this word is strongly debated by philosophers, so that doesn't help us much.

When talking about what is conscious and what isn't, I am usually talking about the notions of consciousness that are discussed when we look at the 'hard problem of consciousness'.

The definition of 'ability to react to the surroundings' is one that can be tested using scientific methods. When one applies a definition that is directly correlated to well-defined neural dynamics (brain activity in a specific region) or behavior (self-recognition when looking at a mirror), then those are usually referred to as the 'easy problems' of consciousness, because we can test these experimentally.

The hard problem deals with the actual subjective experience. Whether a 'movie' is being played for something or someone to experience.

we are only able to prove our own consciousness

The thing is, we can't actually prove our own consciousness. I know that I am conscious, because I am me. But I can't prove that to anyone else, and no one else can prove to me that they are conscious. We use pragmatism here and make the choice to accept each other's consciousness, because if we are not pragmatic we are pulled right into an existential crisis.

We are happy to apply this pragmatic view to each other, but not to other beings. Other beings are expected to prove the impossible before we let them into the consciousness club.

They are family and more like us than we give them credit for even if we communicate in different ways. Pets are so rewarding if you give them the autonomy to be themselves.

Haha this is exactly what I was thinking of - I read this and it scared the shit out of me. Are we all just animals eating each other to survive and we should just.... eat the living things that appear to experience the least distress?

I've wanted to try! I've been grilling vegan burgers at home and replacing some things with tofu when I can. I can see how it'd be easier than a few years ago and definitely want to try like a week and see how I feel!