You've experienced this mystical thing, and so you know it's true?
> They give an 11% prior probability of earthworm sentience
I'm having trouble holding in the laughter. But you don't seem to understand how dangerously deranged these people are. They'll convert you to their religion by hook or crook.
I would hesitate to use that word myself, though my personal experiences have, at times, been somewhat similar to those who do use the word.
Suffering is experience, and my own internal experiences are the things that I can be most certain of. So in this case, yes. I don’t know why you’re calling it “mystical” though.
> They'll convert you to their religion by hook or crook.
I have a lot more confidence in my ability to evaluate arguments than you seem to.
Look, I’m not going to defend the author here. The linked report reads to me like the output of a group of people who have become so insulated in their thinking on this subject that they’ve totally lost perspective. They give an 11% prior probability of earthworm sentience based on proxies like “avoiding noxious stimuli”, which is… really something.
But I’m not so confused by a bad set of arguments that I think suffering doesn’t exist.