We don't know what makes things sentient–so let's stop acting like we do

Re:We don't know what makes things sentient–so let's stop ac... by whimsicalism on Monday June 13, 2022 @12:48PM (#31728091)

1. The vast majority of creatures don't have opposable thumbs, that doesn't mean it wasn't evolutionary advantageous for humans to have opposable thumbs.

2. We have no way of knowing any of this because we don't even have a handle on what sentience is.

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Re:We don't know what makes things sentient–so let's stop ac... by JieJie on Monday June 13, 2022 @01:31PM (#31728688)

One assumption people seem to be making is that sentience is a binary: either one has it or one doesn't. It's possible that there are many levels of self-awareness, some which we would recognize and some which we would not. There may be levels of sentience humans have not yet experienced, even.

For instance, ants exhibit self-aware behavior when presented with a mirror test. Does this mean ants are sentient?

https://www.npr.org/2021/08/09/1026227683/mirror-mirror-on-t...

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