My dear Smartphone Sentient Part 2 !

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VGnizm
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My dear Smartphone Sentient Part 2 !

Post by VGnizm »

I am writing this post as a follow up to the original post titled ‘ Is my dear Smartphone Sentient? ‘of a week ago. The reason is that there has not been a conclusive result and the debate brought up more questions than answers and it seems there is no real consensus. The threads are open on the 2 following links. One is in English and one is in French.

http://philosophicalvegan.com/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=3091

https://vegeweb.org/mon-cher-smartphone-est-il-sentient-t22219.html

I would highly recommend having a look as it will give good insight. On another end it has become obvious that Sentience remains elusive and especially to mainstream people. Bearing in mind that this concept of Sentience is and will become more important in the future due to the advent of Artificial Intelligence in our lives and therefore new Ethical and Moral standards will impose themselves. So as a Vegan I am interested to better understand the basis of this complimentary lifestyle I have adopted. And as an intellectual I am interested in better understanding the social and individual implications this term will have.

For that purpose and to avoid getting into the very subjective debate that developed around the first post I thought to simplify it to a list of common synonyms and a few definitions for sentient that are to be found in online references such as dictionaries and thesauruses. The hope is to narrow this issue down as much as possible.

Please select the 5 words you find to be most descriptive and the 3 definitions you find to be most comprehensive for ‘ sentient ‘ . Any additional input or comments are welcome as well.

Life Loving thanks in advance !

1. able to recognize
2. alert
3. alive
4. apperceptive
5. apprehensive
6. attentive
7. awake
8. aware
9. capable of feeling
10. cognizant
11. conscious
12. faculty
13. feeling
14. informed
15. knowing
16. live
17. living
18. mental faculty
19. mindful
20. modality
21. noticing
22. observing
23. perceiving
24. reactive
25. receptive
26. recognizing
27. responsive
28. seeing
29. sensation
30. sense
31. sense modality
32. sensibility
33. sensible
34. sensitive to
35. sensitiveness
36. sensitivity
37. sensory faculty
38. sensory system
39. understanding
40. witting


A. capable of feeling things through physical senses sentient creatures
B. responsive to or conscious of sense impressions
C. able to perceive or feel things
D. endowed with feeling and unstructured consciousness
E. The state of consciousness whereby the individual has that quality which make him capable of questioning his existence.
F. The ability to know that you exist, and to be able to think apart from your primal instincts with logic.
G. sentient is a living creature, whether it's habitat be land, air, water, or a combination of these. Sentients are sensitive to light, heat etc but most importantly they can feel pain.
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brimstoneSalad
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Re: My dear Smartphone Sentient Part 2 !

Post by brimstoneSalad »

Maybe these, many are similar:

1. able to recognize
4. apperceptive
18. mental faculty
39. understanding
40. witting

B. responsive to or conscious of sense impressions
It's not just responsive, there has to be understanding and information processing going on.
D. endowed with feeling and unstructured consciousness
I'm not sure what unstructured consciousness is supposed to mean.
E. The state of consciousness whereby the individual has that quality which make him capable of questioning his existence.
Questioning ones existence is not necessary, an implicit understanding of it is enough.
F. The ability to know that you exist, and to be able to think apart from your primal instincts with logic.
The first part is fine, the second is very unclear. It depends how strict we're being with logic; if we're talking about very crude inductive reasoning, basic notions of cause and effect, and things like that then yes. Of course, not even all humans are educated in and use formal logic.
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VGnizm
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Re: My dear Smartphone Sentient Part 2 !

Post by VGnizm »

- Thanks for the very clear answer. Just out of curiosity. Why 'witting' ?
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brimstoneSalad
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Re: My dear Smartphone Sentient Part 2 !

Post by brimstoneSalad »

VGnizm wrote: Mon Apr 24, 2017 3:16 pm - Thanks for the very clear answer. Just out of curiosity. Why 'witting' ?
Unwitting means unintentional, it could be reflexive or accidental. Witting is deliberate, with conscious awareness of cause and effect; it necessitates purpose and understanding of what's happening.

A sentient being can engage in an unwitting act, but a non-sentient being can not engage in a witting act. Only sentient beings can be witting.
It's not sentience itself, but it's something sentience is required for.
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VGnizm
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Re: My dear Smartphone Sentient Part 2 !

Post by VGnizm »

- Thanks again :)
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