Re:Researcher links mass extinctions to 'Planet X'
by krapp on Sunday April 03, 2016 @03:41PM
(#11417317)
Your definition of "sentient being" seems too anthropocentric to me. Why should anyone but humans happen to have evolved something like a brain with dopamine centers and the capacity for pleasure or addiction?
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Re:Researcher links mass extinctions to 'Planet X'
by tremon on Sunday April 03, 2016 @04:38PM
(#11417555)
His position doesn't really change if you accept the use of "dopamine center" as a metaphor. For as far as we know, reward/punishment are essential triggers for adaptive neural networks. I don't think it's anthropocentric to presuppose that any advanced lifeform can artificially stimulate its own reward mechanisms.