> but they need to have a basic awareness/intelligence to be able to perform and decipher the waggle dance. And pain is a basic neural response.

I think bees are conscious in some way and probably feel, but the examples you give don't nail it. The waggle dance could be decoded by a machine; robots display avoidance behavior and could be programmed to say ouch! every time they bump into the wall...

The way I look at consciousness is like this: We assume that people have consciousness even though we don't know what it is and can't define it properly. We can detect consciousness in people by their responses; certain responses indicate consciousness to us. Following the work of Donald R. Griffin, we can attempt to access the consciousness of animals. 

Griffin:

> The taboo against considering subjective experiences of nonhuman animals has become such a serious impediment to scientific investigation that it is time to lay it aside and begin the difficult task of investigating the subjective experiences of nonhuman animals

PLB

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