What the heck is consciousness anyway?

[Bear]

Right. Dogs are sentient, not (as we think of it) sapient. That said, they're a heck of a lot closer to sapient than clams. I see intelligence as a question of degree. Sentients have qualia, at least for purposes of my working assumptions. They have emotions, feel pleasure and pain, desire things and desire to avoid things, and in general have reasons to care about the world. Any time you abuse a sentient creature, you accept some ethical responsibility for it, because you screwed up something that can feel bad about it, or feel pain.

Sapients? Not necessarily. Things that solve problems by manipulating symbols - "Intelligence" as we understand it - can exist without necessarily having a subjective experience, and such a thing could be abused, or shut down, without a qualm.