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Glyn Moody

How should we treat beings that might be sentient? - arstechnica.com/science/2024/1 " always avoid inflicting gratuitous suffering on sentience candidates; take precautions when making decisions regarding a sentience candidate; and make proportional decisions about the care of sentience candidates that are “informed, democratic and inclusive.”

Image of a large octopus moving over a reef.
Ars Technica · How should we treat beings that might be sentient?By Ars Contributors

@glynmoody @mauriciobc Once I saw a biologist-turned-scifi-author argue octopuses are the closest we have to aliens — and we eat them. Perhaps we wouldn't eat them if they had a civilization (tools, buildings etc) but still we wouldn't set an embassy.

@lffontenelle yes, have to say I stopped eating them some years ago for similar reason; incredible creatures... @mauriciobc

@glynmoody I note that the author has redefined "sentience" so that it applies to almost every animal. (Which is probably true for other definitions, too, actually; the word is misused).

This neatly sidesteps the question that sprang into my head: WHY should we treat potentially sentient animals differently? To save embarrassment later? That doesn't seem ethical…

@glynmoody but a precaution against what? wouldn't it be more ethical to treat animals well regardless?

Edit: regardless of the consequences to us, I mean?

@fishidwardrobe a precaution against inflicting harm on sentient beings

@glynmoody we do that all the time, though.
edit: I mean — if we had a good record as a species at not harming *because sentient*, we'd not be whaling on each other, and it might make sense to extend that to potentially sentient others.

But we don't.

And I'd still argue that it would be better if we did the best we can by everything around us, sentient or not.

@fishidwardrobe sure, we should try; this is looking at things from one perspective, I think