Ok, so you are saying a cat isn't sentient? And yet, most would agree that a cat can feel pain, but a machine can't. I think most people would object if the G

Ok, so you are saying a cat isn't sentient? And yet, most would agree that a cat can feel pain, but a machine can't. I think most people would object if the Google engineer said "I think this AI is every bit as sentient as a cat." They'd still say he's crazy. I also wonder what would happen if that particular AI actually had logic to "observe its own thought processes and integrate them back into consciousness". Would we then just spin on the semantics, such as by arguing that this isn't really "observing" and it certainly isn't "consciousness"? (how can you define words like "consciousness" without using words or concepts like "sentience", bringing us back to square one?) So I don't think meta-cognition is the answer either.