I don't think consciousness requires agency. Consciousness is simply the ability to have a qualitative experience. It does not require any intelligence or even self-awareness.
But if you don't have self-awareness, are you aware that you're having the "qualitative experience"? And if you aren't aware that you're having it, are you really having an "experience"?
Or by self-awareness, do you mean that you're aware that you're aware of having the experience?
To the larger point: I think we're using different definitions of "consciousness". Which is really the problem: we don't even know how to define it yet.
There are many animals (including many mammals) that don't recognize themselves in mirrors, and are therefore usually assumed not to have self awareness.
It'd be weird to me if they didn't have qualitative experiences though.
I'd assert that they don't have consciousness, though. But as I said, that probably means we're using different definitions. And I have no way of proving that mine is right, nor even a convincing argument that you should adopt it.
I don't have an argument either, just a strong feeling that animals who show signs of emotions, playing etc and are very similar to us biologically, probably have a subjective experience. I would be astonished if they didn't.
But I have no clue how we could find out whether they do.
Wow! That's definitely me, I forgot I made that post! I was actually studying biology in college at the time. It's a layman theory, I am not a biologist, but wish a real scientist could expound on the idea.
