Comment by slfnflctd

My response to this for a while (and what I think is one of the few rational responses) has been that it doesn't matter at this point whether consciousness, sentience, sapience or whatever you want to call it is 'actually there'.

What matters that growing numbers of people already believe it is, and their response to that belief will affect the real world, regardless of its truth. This debate is never going to end.

All we can do is try to anticipate where the debate is going, how it might affect us, and how we can make contingency plans for the different ways this could all play out.