Consciousness is a weird concept. Like the only thing you can REALLY be sure is conscious is yourself. Believing that others experience this consciousness you do and being able to empathize with them are also a weird concepts because they come from you observing others OUTWARD behaviors. It may be the seeing a person behave in a way that is similar to behaviors you do that triggers empathy. For example, you seeing a person yawning and falling asleep and you go "ah yes i do such actions too and when i do i feel [certain feeling] and they must feel something very like [said certain feeling]". But when you see rocks just motionlessly sitting there you don't emphasize with them because you don't observe any outward behavior similar to yours. Therefore you say "rocks dont perceive and i cant emphasize with them". And destroying rocks by throwing them into lava is not unethical to you (as opossed to throwing a human in lava). But say you sculpt out of rocks have a doll that can close its eyes when you lay it on its back. Now you are observing something that is reminiscent of a fellow human being but still its made out of rock material so you don't believe that the doll is really FEELING sleepy when you lay it on its back and closes ite eyes. You don't think it perceives and you dont really feel like a murder if you throw it in lava. But what if we had (theoretically) a human body made with rock material modeled as closely to an actual human body as rock material can get it-- so with rock brains and organs and the entire inner body of a human and because they are modeled so closely to the actual thing, this rock human's body mimicks the functions of actual human body and this rock human yawns and sleeps and snores (sorry if this soooooo scientifically off but hopefully you get the idea and the point). Does this rock human percieve? Can you empathize with it or him? Would it be a murder to throw him in lava and let him melt? If the organs were made of actual human tissue instead of rocks, people would consider him a real human who feels and it would be murder to throw him in lava and let him melt. What makes a thing conscious its a hard question.