2 ms·

Sentience should not be the criteria for whether it is OK to farm an animal. Why do people still think it is?

• DangitBobby 2y ago
  What should be the criteria?
  • vadfie1 2y ago
    I don't know. Sentience seems like a weak argument though. If in the far future we encounter aliens with superior intelligence, would that make it OK for them to farm us?
    • DangitBobby 2y ago
      Well we have sentience, so it would be consistent if I accepted the sentience criteria and also answered "no" to this question. Maybe the issue is the concept of sentience is poorly defined. I think of it as synonymous with "having qualia", i.e., having subjective experiences. Yours is my go-to thought experiment for why some arbitrary intelligence bar doesn't give us lease to eat animals. That and the even more obvious, can I eat really dumb people?