News for hackers. Stuff that matters.
Re:Are animals conscious? How new research is changing minds by RoyalHenOil on Thursday June 20, 2024 @07:11PM (#40744502)
This is not a definition I have ever heard anyone use before, and I suspect that's because the definition is so constrained that it's not useful for scientific or philosophical discussion.

If you reserve "consciousness" as a word to be exclusively for humans, what word do you suggest instead when discussing consciousness as experienced by both humans and non-humans? And once you have come up with such a word, how do you plan to convince everyone to give up the common word they have been using for generations and replace it with this new word?

I would suggest, instead, that you co-opt a different, less common word for your unusual use case so as to minimally inconvenience everyone else. "Sapient" seems like a much better option to me, since it is derived from "Homo sapiens" and suggestive of something more unique to humans.

Or, better yet, coin a new word and stop trying to change the definitions of existing words.

There are no comments on this comment yet.