Why would they [animals] be any different? I'm sure there are
probably
some insects (worms?) that have no conscious experience or phenomenal
subjective experience at all, having purely abstract intelligence.
In
order to know what echo-location is like for a bat we simply must
reproduce the proper neural correlate (or whatever gives the bat it's
experience) in our conscious world.
Personally, I believe that we will be suprised by the abundance of
consciousness when we do finally 'discover' it. It is a common belief that
consciousness is a result of any complex network (thus, allowing for
conscious machines). If this is true why is there not one large
consciousness, after all the universe is the largest network. Maybe there is
a collective consciousness, and our smaller consciousness exist within this.
This could also lead to an abundance of counscii making up our own
consciousness, our minds could already be a collective of many independent
conscious beings (each of which thinking it's the only consciousness).
I'm going to be wildly speculative here: Could it be that consciousness is a
product of any logic (not just highly complex networks such as our brain).
Whenever cause and effect takes place there could be a spark of
consciousness, possibly only lasting for a nanosecond and maybe inferior
compared to our own. Out of this web of conscious thought higher level
conscii start to appear, eventually leading to our own complex perceptions
and beyond.
Of course, consciousness could simply be the product of some chemical, or
brain pattern that we have evolved over the years. Whatever it is, if it
exists we'll find it, it's just a matter of time.
~Wax