the subjectivity* I experience is significantly causally linked to the world (e.g. I can tweet about it). and it makes sense that this sort of experience would only arise because affects fitness. *normally I just use "sentience" to mean the concept I am referring to here
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Replying to @AlexGodofsky @androgynandre
the sensations that arise within a roomba are significantly causally linked to the world too. it has sensors and it makes decisions based on the facts about the world reported by those sensors. is this different than how you do it? how is being able to tweet about it relevant?
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remember the distinction between sentience and sapience. your reflection, introspection, and conceptual model of yourself are attributes of sapient cognition. sentience is just the fact of having feelings and sensations. subjectivity is a first consequence of having sensations.
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Replying to @danlistensto @androgynandre
you changed a word, and that change is important. the roomba's behavior is causally linked with what registers on its sensors, but that is not the same as being causally linked to the fact of its own subjective experience (in the sense discussed).
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Replying to @AlexGodofsky @androgynandre
I don't at all see how that disqualifies a roomba from having a subjectivity or being sentient or how the human equivalent of this is not also behavior causally linked with what registers on sensors.
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Replying to @danlistensto @androgynandre
a roomba is explainable without subjectivity. I am not explainable without subjectivity. occam's razor.
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Replying to @AlexGodofsky @androgynandre
you're talking about subjectivity as if it's something special, even unexplainable. it's nothing more than the fact that the sensations experienced by that entity are necessarily linked to the subjective perspective of that entity.
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i.e. there is a Roomba's eye view of the world due to the fact that the roomba has eyes that see. sensing is the antecedent of subjectivity. it is not possible to explain the fact that a roomba senses without drawing the conclusion that it has a subjectivity.
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Replying to @danlistensto @androgynandre
I am not sure if our disagreement is rooted in my failure to communicate the sense in which I mean "sentience" or (in this conversation) "subjectivity" or if it's rooted in a genuine disagreement of fact.
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I am not entirely sure how to properly define this sense beyond allusion to our (presumably shared) experience as sentient / self-aware / whatever beings.
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this is what i'm trying to break free from. if we can only make sense of sentience by reference to what human sentience feels like then we will remain blind to the many forms of sentience that exist that are nothing like human sentience.
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