2021: Creating a Lexicon of Future
S is for Sentience
Sentience is the capacity to experience feelings and sensations. The word was first coined by philosophers in the 1630s for the concept of an ability to feel, derived from Latin sentientem (a feeling), to distinguish it from the ability to think (reason). In modern Western philosophy, sentience is the ability to experience sensations. In different Asian religions, the word ‘sentience’ has been used to translate a variety of concepts. In science fiction, the word “sentience” is sometimes used interchangeably with “sapience”, “self-awareness”, or “consciousness”. ~ Wikipedia
In contrast with the unitary view of consciousness, I have come to think of human consciousness as multilayered, integrating multiple mental functions. In this view, consciousness can function in a sensory mode in which the different sensations entering the brain are selected according to their emotional weight (“salience”) so that some become conscious and others do not. Consciousness can also function in a proactive or “motor” mode in which it directs attention and behavior to achieve a particular goal. For example, this occurs in a cat stalking a mouse or a dog tracking a scent. In humans, the ability of consciousness to direct attention is used in internalized actions that do not seem to exist in animals, for example, when we recall a particular memory, imagine a future or hypothetical scenario, or engage in rational thinking. In turn, this ability to remember the past and imagine the future gives rise to ‘extended consciousness’: our ability to perceive ourselves as beings that exist through time. Human subjective awareness also allows us to know that we have a mind. I think that this ability of the human mind to reflect on its own functioning derives from the “theory of mind”, the uniquely human ability to make mental models of the minds of other persons. By applying theory of mind to our own mind, we construct a narrative about what we are thinking and feeling. Theory of mind applied to our own mind repeatedly over time may be what give raise to extended consciousness and the autobiographical self or the ego: a continuous narrative of who we are. Extended consciousness, knowing that we have a mind, our internal narrative of our own experience and our autobiographical self are uniquely human, because they require cognitive and cultural elements that only happen in the human mind. Things that we know about ourselves, our society and our culture are indispensable to construct narratives about what goes on in our minds right now, about who we were, and about who we will be.
If this multilayer hypothesis of consciousness is true, it would be possible for animals to have sensory and motor consciousness but not other elements of human consciousness like theory of mind, extended consciousness and a sense of self. Thus, animals would be able to filter sensations to give salience to the ones that are important for survival. ~ What is Sentience?
UK Animal Welfare Law Would Recognize Lobsters, Crabs, Octopuses as Sentient Beings
The British government has announced that it will add both cephalopods (the class containing octopuses, squids, and cuttlefish) and decapods (the order with lobsters, crabs, shrimp, prawns, and crayfish) to its new animal-welfare bill, citing “strong evidence” that this group of marine invertebrates has feelings.
That new legislation — the Animal Welfare (Sentience) Bill, which was introduced back in May and would require the British government to take animals’ feelings into account when writing rules and crafting policy — already recognizes all vertebrates as sentient beings. But the Boris Johnson administration says it’s chosen to expand that definition after seeing the findings from a London School of Economics and Political Science review it commissioned that concluded cephalopods and decapods have the capacity for “feelings of pain, pleasure, hunger, thirst, warmth, joy, comfort, and excitement” because they have “complex central nervous systems, one of the key hallmarks of sentience.” ~ Octopuses, lobsters, and crabs are sentient beings, says new U.K. study
