How do you know if something has consciousness?

Question

Are animals conscious of what they do or who they are? Can a machine with artificial intelligence be regarded as having some form of consciousness? What is consciousness?

Answer 1

In my view, consciousness reflects through inconsistency..... inanimate objects without consciousness react consistently to any specific external stimulus or impact. We living beings (of course including animals and other forms) can not be always consistent in our reaction to any specific external stimulus or impact... our consciousness receives it in different ways at different times based on the state it is in at the respective points of time.

Answer 2

Consciousness is the state of being conscious. It is the perception of the surroundings, the whole body of a person's thought and feelings. By the definition above consciousness applies only to humans. Animals could perceive things but lacks the thought of humans. Animals are conscious in a sense but do not have the though of what is right and wrong. Although animals may be tamed but still the true knowledge is lacking in them. Robots are made by man. They don't have the consciousness as man have. That's why they have what you called artificial intelligence. Without the maneuvering of man robots could not do things what a normal person could do.

Answer 3

Consciousness is the attribute of being able to perceive outside stimulus and the ability to respond to it. Even the simplest forms have consciousness, as an electron has the ability to be attracted or repulsed, depending on the environment it is in.
Anything that responds in some manner to its environment is considered to have consciousness.

Answer 4

"Consciousness" has a couple of senses, the looser one applying to animals and infants. This consciousness has to do with the simple sensing of environmental stimuli, and most likely, responding to them.
___Adult human consciousness, though, contains an added element of self consciousness, the ability to observe one's sensing of environmental stimuli and responses to them, and to think about one's thoughts, feelings, sensations, and self in a way similar to the way we observe other, "external" objects. This capacity doesn't develop significantly until adolescence, and is likely a consequence of gaining facility with symbolic language.