Jonathan Birch

It's a delicate balance, I think. What we wanted to do, and it's similar to the project in the book, the Edge of Sentience book, was to acknowledge that there is a huge amount of disagreement about these issues. And that's fine. It's to be expected when our understanding of what sentience is is so poor.

It's a delicate balance, I think. What we wanted to do, and it's similar to the project in the book, the Edge of Sentience book, was to acknowledge that there is a huge amount of disagreement about these issues. And that's fine. It's to be expected when our understanding of what sentience is is so poor.

But nonetheless, despite all of that reasonable disagreement, there can be certain points of wide agreement about what the reasonable range of views is and what the realistic possibilities are. That was the thought behind it. And then, well...

But nonetheless, despite all of that reasonable disagreement, there can be certain points of wide agreement about what the reasonable range of views is and what the realistic possibilities are. That was the thought behind it. And then, well...

we got together an initial group of 40 signatories and just had a series of Zoom calls where we were talking about, well, what are the, do we agree about a realistic range of possibilities? And if so, what can be said about what that range is? And that's how we got this text that acknowledges a realistic possibility of consciousness, which was the term we used there,

we got together an initial group of 40 signatories and just had a series of Zoom calls where we were talking about, well, what are the, do we agree about a realistic range of possibilities? And if so, what can be said about what that range is? And that's how we got this text that acknowledges a realistic possibility of consciousness, which was the term we used there,

perhaps a more widely used term than sentience, in octopuses, cephalopod mollus, decapod crustaceans, and insects. And so we were trying to avoid the sense of projecting certainty, or even confidence or knowledge, but using this language of realistic possibility to say, what we do agree on is the need to take this really seriously. Sure.

perhaps a more widely used term than sentience, in octopuses, cephalopod mollus, decapod crustaceans, and insects. And so we were trying to avoid the sense of projecting certainty, or even confidence or knowledge, but using this language of realistic possibility to say, what we do agree on is the need to take this really seriously. Sure.

That was always my view. Yeah, that was my view. But in this group of 40, a more common view was that people don't understand the term sentience yet. They're not ready for it. Use a term they already understand. namely consciousness. Both sides have pitfalls, because as I say, if you start talking about consciousness, people might think you mean the inner monologue, self-awareness.

That was always my view. Yeah, that was my view. But in this group of 40, a more common view was that people don't understand the term sentience yet. They're not ready for it. Use a term they already understand. namely consciousness. Both sides have pitfalls, because as I say, if you start talking about consciousness, people might think you mean the inner monologue, self-awareness.

There's quite a range of things they might think you're talking about. So there's trade-offs there. I think the term sentience is on the up, so to speak. And for me, it's hopefully the term of the future that will start to displace consciousness in these debates.

There's quite a range of things they might think you're talking about. So there's trade-offs there. I think the term sentience is on the up, so to speak. And for me, it's hopefully the term of the future that will start to displace consciousness in these debates.

That was the thought, yeah. And that may be true as things stand.

That was the thought, yeah. And that may be true as things stand.

How do we know when another animal is, do you mean? I think we know when we ourselves are.

How do we know when another animal is, do you mean? I think we know when we ourselves are.

Right, and when thinking about crabs, for example, we're very much stuck with the third person perspective. And we're stuck too with a big range of reasonable disagreement and quite a lot of realistic possibilities. Some will make it very unlikely that crabs are experiencing things and others make it very likely that they are.

Right, and when thinking about crabs, for example, we're very much stuck with the third person perspective. And we're stuck too with a big range of reasonable disagreement and quite a lot of realistic possibilities. Some will make it very unlikely that crabs are experiencing things and others make it very likely that they are.

And what I do in the book is I suggest a pragmatic shift in how we think about the question. from is the animal sentient to is the animal a sentience candidate? Where this concept of a sentience candidate is defined in such a way as to make the question answerable,

And what I do in the book is I suggest a pragmatic shift in how we think about the question. from is the animal sentient to is the animal a sentience candidate? Where this concept of a sentience candidate is defined in such a way as to make the question answerable,