Sorry, this thread exploded while I was afk. I adopted this definition from Sam Harris (it was probably his TED talk on science and morals). What I mean by con

Sorry, this thread exploded while I was afk. I adopted this definition from Sam Harris (it was probably his TED talk on science and morals). What I mean by consciousness (and some people in this thread do not seem to have understood this) is not necessarily human-level consciousness, but the ability to suffer. And of course, there are different degrees to which animals are "capable" of suffering. I did not expect this concept of morality to be controversial at all. I am surprised by the discussion.