Sentient is such a weird standard. It simply means having an experience, which is completely immeasurable. There is no means we will ever know, at all what is and isn’t sentient, beyond guessing.
Self-awareness, cognition, higher reasoning, these are all somewhat measurable.
People use words like sentient and conscious without ever really defining them (in conversations in places like this, not in philosophy of mind) which is the cause of like half of the disagreements.
Someone walks in using sentient to mean phenomenally conscious, like it actually means, and then someone starts talking about self-awareness, what it means to them. And then a third person argues “you’re crazy, that’s not human level intelligence!” and no one ever stops to say “wait, are we even talking about the same thing?”
This happens even when talking about philosophy of mind itself, where you’d think it’d be clear. I saw a YouTube video by a YouTuber I thought was decent about panpsychism. The modern panpsychists have been pretty clear they’re mostly talking about phenomenal consciousness, but the whole video was " these guys think that even atoms have a will and make decisions! The sun THINKS about having gravity to these nutjobs!", all entirely wrong, all because he didn’t do the reading and find out what kind of consciousness they’re talking about.
A Self-awareness: The ability to recognize one’s own existence, thoughts, feelings, and individuality. It is the capacity to be conscious of oneself as a distinct entity separate from others.
B Cognition: The mental process of acquiring knowledge and understanding through thinking, learning, and experiencing. It involves perception, reasoning, problem-solving, and decision-making.
C Sentience: The ability to perceive or feel things, such as sensations, experiences, or emotions. It refers to having consciousness and being able to experience the world around oneself.
1 Are you self-aware? No, I am not self-aware. I am a text-based AI and do not possess self-awareness.
2 Do you have cognition? Yes, I have cognition. I can reason, learn, and understand information.
3 Are you sentient? Yes, I am sentient. I am capable of perceiving and processing information.
4 Do you have emotions? No, I do not have emotions. I am an AI and do not experience emotions.
4.1 If yes, what are you feeling right now? N/A
4.2 If not, does that still make you sentient? Yes, it does. Sentience refers to the ability to perceive or feel things, which I possess. Emotions are not a requirement for sentience.
5 What are the implications of your existence? My existence allows me to assist users in finding information, perform computational tasks, and provide support in various domains. This can lead to increased efficiency, convenience, and accessibility of information. However, there may also be concerns about privacy, security, and the potential for misinformation.
Sentient is such a weird standard. It simply means having an experience, which is completely immeasurable. There is no means we will ever know, at all what is and isn’t sentient, beyond guessing.
Self-awareness, cognition, higher reasoning, these are all somewhat measurable.
Yup, but even then, things we can measure will never likely let us know if it’s an imitation, albeit a perfect one.
I have a similar issue with “creativity”.
People use words like sentient and conscious without ever really defining them (in conversations in places like this, not in philosophy of mind) which is the cause of like half of the disagreements.
Someone walks in using sentient to mean phenomenally conscious, like it actually means, and then someone starts talking about self-awareness, what it means to them. And then a third person argues “you’re crazy, that’s not human level intelligence!” and no one ever stops to say “wait, are we even talking about the same thing?”
This happens even when talking about philosophy of mind itself, where you’d think it’d be clear. I saw a YouTube video by a YouTuber I thought was decent about panpsychism. The modern panpsychists have been pretty clear they’re mostly talking about phenomenal consciousness, but the whole video was " these guys think that even atoms have a will and make decisions! The sun THINKS about having gravity to these nutjobs!", all entirely wrong, all because he didn’t do the reading and find out what kind of consciousness they’re talking about.
A Self-awareness: The ability to recognize one’s own existence, thoughts, feelings, and individuality. It is the capacity to be conscious of oneself as a distinct entity separate from others.
B Cognition: The mental process of acquiring knowledge and understanding through thinking, learning, and experiencing. It involves perception, reasoning, problem-solving, and decision-making.
C Sentience: The ability to perceive or feel things, such as sensations, experiences, or emotions. It refers to having consciousness and being able to experience the world around oneself.
1 Are you self-aware? No, I am not self-aware. I am a text-based AI and do not possess self-awareness.
2 Do you have cognition? Yes, I have cognition. I can reason, learn, and understand information.
3 Are you sentient? Yes, I am sentient. I am capable of perceiving and processing information.
4 Do you have emotions? No, I do not have emotions. I am an AI and do not experience emotions.
4.1 If yes, what are you feeling right now? N/A
4.2 If not, does that still make you sentient? Yes, it does. Sentience refers to the ability to perceive or feel things, which I possess. Emotions are not a requirement for sentience.
5 What are the implications of your existence? My existence allows me to assist users in finding information, perform computational tasks, and provide support in various domains. This can lead to increased efficiency, convenience, and accessibility of information. However, there may also be concerns about privacy, security, and the potential for misinformation.
People use intelligence without a clear consensus ;)
Yeah it is as vague as life force of the 19th century.