Guingrich, r. e.

I started to read Sentience: The Invention of Consciousness by Nicolas Humphrey, and made it only to the prologue before needing to jot down some thoughts.

It’s funny to me that the basis of the argument of the prologue in this book, which reflects the basis of the argument of many for why consciousness ascription matters, is that somehow, consciousness as we humans experience it is the baseline for something like having human status of moral care. There is an assumption that to have consiousness like a human makes you worthy (of something). Being conscious like a human is what makes you rise from the bottom level, from the lower place where you’re trampled on by the feet of humans, up to the level of humans on their safe perch. We are god, then. It’s by our standards that we decide. Only if an entity, such as an octopus, can reach our standard will it then have all these other blessings bestowed upon it. That’s the first assumption: human consciousness as the standard. The second assumption is less of an assumption, but more of a void: it’s the question of, once something else reaches human-level sentience status, what then? Do we stop eating octopi? Do we make sure to kill off the predators of octopi, much like we kill the germs that threaten us? 

Before we can dive into what has consciousness or sentience, we have two questions that must be addressed.

First, the question is: Why us? Why are we the standard?

The second question is: What then? When something else meets our standard, how do we intend to respond?

I’d say these are two important questions to consider before diving into the question, “What things other than humans are conscious?” Otherwise, we start on uneven ground before we begin. Maybe others would argue that we have to answer the “what” question before the “why” and the “what then.” Maybe others think the “what” question must first be answered before the others can have purchase. I understand that argument, but I believe that these two questions are more important than the other. We have to first understand and decide on the purpose of the quest (the “what then”) and to have some firmer grounding for why ~we~ are mind-elite, before deciding who else can join our privileged position.