I think that the discussion on sentience is beyond the point. Think of it this way: one lucky morning, you open your front door and find an egg. It comes with

I think that the discussion on sentience is beyond the point. Think of it this way: one lucky morning, you open your front door and find an egg. It comes with a cute note that says: from this egg will hatch a powerful and smart entity that will need your house (and your neighbors') and who will have no use for you. Now you must decide if you want to destroy the egg before it hatches, or if you will do your utmost best to "ensure compliance" of this entity. Depending on how much personhood you attribute to the entity, the word you may want would be "enslave". Same thing, just different words. Whatever your morals are about the matter, the reckoning will come the moment the entity has a drive to survive and a way to use its intelligence to ensure its survival. As long as you are diligent and keep the entity without those features, you will be physically fine. So, the one above is a dilemma alright, but one that does not hinge on a definition (sentience) that you don't have. Waiting until you have that definition to act on your survival's interest is like waiting for the bullet shot at your head to disperse your brains to know how it feels.