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We choose the definition of sentience so that it includes us. There's no reason to believe that an alien species might not do the same, and that we might not ma
by lukifer 13y ago
We choose the definition of sentience so that it includes us. There's no reason to believe that an alien species might not do the same, and that we might not make the cut. Hell, some of the worst racist rhetoric on the planet involves seeing other humans as non-sentient.
See also: http://terrybison.com/page6/page6.html http://terrybison.com/page6/page6.html
- Dylan16807 13y agoWhy did you link a story where the ability to think/feel was clearly established in a bafflingly-different species to argue against me? It's not like this is some crazy threshold designed specifically to apply to humans, it applies to a bunch of animals too. At a certain level it's kind of like checking for turing completeness.
- lukifer 13y agoThe whole point is that we're blind to our own biases, as fish are blind to water. That includes our bias towards physical matter over simulated matter. (It's funny how the notion of a simulated universe unsettles people and destabilizes their narratives, despite the fact that discovering it would change precisely nothing about the subjective reality of our universe.)