came to the comments to say something like this. What the author completely glossed over was the definition of consciousness, which I think puts most of the rest of the post on shaky footing.

If we define consciousness broadly enough to be a relevant term in all those scenarios, it would have to be something like "that thing that does thinking and self reflection that the reader has and observes evidence of in others". Like you say, attempting to define it makes it get all kinds of slippery. What do you include? memories? experiences? social connections? what is "thinking"? - if it's "information processing with some reflection" then isn't there a kind of consciousness in a society? a computer network? a star system?

I really like the ship of Theseus for this one. it's a great way to examine where the concept begins to get really leaky.