Sentience

and efficiency. These checks and balances are essential to human sustainability. Humans are sentient beings; their biological makeup allows them to experience sensations such as pleasure or pain. Being sentient creatures is the one and only aspect of human intelligence that sets it apart from machines. It is widely perceived that being self-aware or having rationality is a requirement for a sentient being. The human brain “requires a sensory response to locate food, shelter, reproductive opportunities, and responses to dangers. The sensory responses are part of the sentience” (Robbins “Sentience”). Having the ability to feel things is saving the human race. When a drone is flown to execute an air strike, a human is the ultimate decision maker on whether that strike is executed. There is a reason a machine cannot make those decisions; it lacks the ability to feel. Humans need to grasp every ounce of sentience inside if they want to prolong their future in this rapidly advancing technological age. The twenty-first century will evolve with the technology around it. It is not too late to be aware of the dangers AI will purpose. The human race cannot become complacent in everyday objectives or they will be surpassed. Think twice before permitting technologies to do the trivial day to day tasks because within the blink of an eye AI machines will extinguish the need for the human brain. It is urgent that humans become aware of how intelligent machines are rapidly evolving and…

Proctor argues that since humans and animals both have the ability to feel positive and negative emotions, they both deserve the respect and the right to not be treated cruelly. Marian Stamp Dawkins expands on the idea that animals deserve to be treated without cruelty in “The Science of Animal Suffering.” Dawkins addresses humanity’s moral obligation to treat animals with dignity and explains how humans can accomplish this different relationship with animals. Robert Garner’s article, “In…

Technology has been rapidly developing in the past decades. Compared to half a decade ago, technology has grown at a faster rate. Humans use technology and artificial intelligence (AI) to make tasks easier and aid humans; but, can artificial intelligence do more than aid humans? Can humans use artificial intelligence for something less mechanical and more organic, such as visual arts? Yes, at the rate technology is advancing, artificial intelligence will be able to create fine arts as skillfully…

In our English 242 course, we were tasked with adapting a novel for a wider, contemporary audience. A team of my classmates and I decided to adapt Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein (1818) to a radio interview, that takes place in the year of 2016. In our adaptation, a scientist develops a robot, and equips it with an advanced learning algorithm, one that can scour the Internet to learn, as well as use camera inputs. This robot, which represents the monster created by Victor Frankenstein, continues to…

Brain, Sentience, Consciousness, and Mind Even though there are distinct differences between mind, brain, sentience, and consciousness, all of them are interconnected. The differences and relationships between these vary greatly in the scientific and psychological world that stems between mental and physical functioning. All of these factors can influence cognition in terms of memory, problem solving, learning, and planning, as well as emotionality in terms of an individual’s response to…

Lastly, I will present how sentience, although an important factor in determining moral status, must also be combined with decency in determining whether an abortion is permissible; one who opts for a third trimester abortion without good reason fails at being a Minimally Decent Samaritan. Moral status Moral status has always been assumed to apply to all human beings, referring to homo-sapiens specifically. However, why nearly all homo-sapiens are considered to have moral status has not been…

Humans have all kinds of emotions. They vary from happiness, joy, to anger and sadness. One could say that human emotion is almost a complex thing, yet something so simple to see and know. However, this is where the issue lies. Emotions can not be seen in a test tube or under a microscope. Emotion can only be observed and physiology studied in a scientific manner. Jonathan Balcombe, a director of animal sentience at the Humane Society Institute for Science and Policy, made an observation of…

This aspect can be seen from the observation that Jessica believes all life is sacred and should not be destroyed. When it comes to Marco, he is using a moral agency bioethical theory and this can be seen from the fact he is willing to support Maria on whatever decision she is willing to make. The moral agency theory states that the moral status is obtained when the individuals have the capacities to make judgments related to wrongness or rightness (Beuchamp and Childress, 2001). Accordingly,…

I'll go ahead and question, in what way is ending a sentient experience for feeding purposes more morally abominable (contentious) than a non-sentient experience? And if sentience is an issue, then what would be the difference between killing a plant and an unconscious animal? And by valueing sentience, aren't we basically constraining our consideration for other beings through a batantly antropocentric view (and is this fair?)? If we have no 'right' to cease the life of an animal, then what…

In Spike Jonze’s 2013 film Her, a man develops a relationship with an evolving artificially intelligent operating system. Within the film, the operating system continues to evolve beyond the relationship capacity of the man and then evolves beyond needing matter to function. From the first human thought to the impending arrival of artificial intelligence, the evolution of sentience has been what defines the platform of existence. As humans were the next platform of mankind from Neanderthals,…