There is a lot of disagreement among philosophers and scientists regarding the definition of consciousness. For me, I feel consciousness is the ability to be aware of your own experiences. This is distinct from having experiences. This is my own philosophical belief, but I think my dog has experiences, but she is probably not aware that she has experiences.

In the quote from my article from Kurzweil, he believes that there are different levels of consciousness depending on the complexity of the system producing the consciousness. So for him, he would argue that my dog is conscious, but that it is less conscious than me. When he claims that an ant colony is conscious he is simply talking about how eusocial animals enhance their consciousness by the product of being in a large group. For example, if I was born on an island and lived my entire life never having met another human, I think I would be "less conscious" than I am currently. My ability to introspect and contemplate my existence is greatly enhanced by having interacted with the human metasystem. So in this way, I may be "more conscious" because of people like you and the rest of the Hubski community.