Jonathan Birch

And the hermit crabs, they're interesting because they have very strong preferences for certain types of shell. And in the wild, you see them exchanging one type of shell for another. And they have this hierarchy of what they think the best shells are. And Elwood, in these experiments, he drilled holes in the shells, put little electrodes in and administered small electric shocks to the crab.

And the hermit crabs, they're interesting because they have very strong preferences for certain types of shell. And in the wild, you see them exchanging one type of shell for another. And they have this hierarchy of what they think the best shells are. And Elwood, in these experiments, he drilled holes in the shells, put little electrodes in and administered small electric shocks to the crab.

And his question was, well, would the crab just evacuate the shell when it was shocked as a kind of reflex? Or would it take account of how good the shell was and how bad it would be to lose that shell in making that decision? And would it require a higher voltage of shock to make it leave a higher quality shell. And he found evidence that indeed it seems to.

And his question was, well, would the crab just evacuate the shell when it was shocked as a kind of reflex? Or would it take account of how good the shell was and how bad it would be to lose that shell in making that decision? And would it require a higher voltage of shock to make it leave a higher quality shell. And he found evidence that indeed it seems to.

And so this is the kind of thing where it's not conclusive proof, but if you're coming in with this view that they're just reflex machines, all they do is stimulus response. There's nothing integrative or centralized going on. This kind of evidence should shake that confidence.

And so this is the kind of thing where it's not conclusive proof, but if you're coming in with this view that they're just reflex machines, all they do is stimulus response. There's nothing integrative or centralized going on. This kind of evidence should shake that confidence.

Yes, credulousness, right? Taking the surface behavior as immediate evidence of sentience.

Yes, credulousness, right? Taking the surface behavior as immediate evidence of sentience.

would it be too provocative to say thinking contemplating musing on the part of the crab to balance the different aspects integrating integrating modeling and weighing of yeah the opportunities and risks posed by the environment yeah and then you have a certain family of theories associated with bjorn merker yak panksepp that treat that as very closely linked to sentience that they say well what what

would it be too provocative to say thinking contemplating musing on the part of the crab to balance the different aspects integrating integrating modeling and weighing of yeah the opportunities and risks posed by the environment yeah and then you have a certain family of theories associated with bjorn merker yak panksepp that treat that as very closely linked to sentience that they say well what what

What is sentience? Fundamentally, well, they propose that it's to do with this evaluative modeling where you're trying to represent in an integrated model the opportunities and risks posed by the environment. And so there's a nice mesh there between the behavioral evidence we're seeing in the crabs and the sorts of...

What is sentience? Fundamentally, well, they propose that it's to do with this evaluative modeling where you're trying to represent in an integrated model the opportunities and risks posed by the environment. And so there's a nice mesh there between the behavioral evidence we're seeing in the crabs and the sorts of...

brain mechanisms that according to this family of theories would be enough for sentience.

brain mechanisms that according to this family of theories would be enough for sentience.

There's no reason to think the magnet is internally representing those field strengths.

There's no reason to think the magnet is internally representing those field strengths.

Yeah. Yeah. And according to the sort of Merkur-Pankset, that family of views, not just any internal integrative representation, but it has to have this evaluative character as well. It has to be a certain kind of modeling of what are the opportunities and risks? What are my needs? What do I need to prioritize right now?

Yeah. Yeah. And according to the sort of Merkur-Pankset, that family of views, not just any internal integrative representation, but it has to have this evaluative character as well. It has to be a certain kind of modeling of what are the opportunities and risks? What are my needs? What do I need to prioritize right now?

Well, I mean, I think it's quite important in these experiments that it has some representation of some kind of the different shell types and their relative qualities. And that is somehow getting integrated with how bad is this electric shock.

Well, I mean, I think it's quite important in these experiments that it has some representation of some kind of the different shell types and their relative qualities. And that is somehow getting integrated with how bad is this electric shock.