[JKCalhoun]

I agree with your point. We've been watching the goal posts being moved ever since Turing (who, we might admit, gave a somewhat mushy answer anyway).

At the same time, the exercise (and even moving the goal posts) is useful. I think we are allowed to say, "This is consciousness!" And when presented with a machine equivalent, say, "That's not what I meant."

As long as you can then further clarify what "it" is.

Of course, at some point, contrarians and goal-post-movers will start to sound shrill. (Perhaps just as early supporters sounded a bit overly ecstatic.)

[jquery]

They’re already sounding pretty shrill imo. They’ve gone from “consciousness is X”, to “actually consciousness is X + Y”, to “actually it’s X + Y + Z + theta + omega + quantum unobtainium”