Jellyfish, Sexbots and the Solipsism Problem

["Dave Farber" <farber () gmail com>]

Begin forwarded message:

> From: John Horgan <jhorgan () stevens edu>
> Date: December 4, 2017 at 8:36:31 AM EST
> To: Dave Farber <farber () gmail com>
> Cc: John Horgan <jhorgan () stevens edu>
> Subject: Jellyfish, Sexbots and the Solipsism Problem
>
> Davie, I thought your list might find this column, "Jellyfish, Sexbots and the Solipsism Problem," interesting. John 
> Horgan
>
> What’s the difference between science and philosophy? Scientists address questions that can in principle be answered 
> by means of objective, empirical investigation. Philosophers wrestle with questions that cannot be empirically 
> resolved and hence remain matters of taste, not truth.
>
> ​ 
>
> Here is a classic philosophical question: What creatures and/or things are capable of consciousness?... This question 
> animated “Animal Consciousness,” a conference I attended at New York University last month. It should have been 
> called “Animal Consciousness?” or “Animal ‘Consciousness’” to reflect the uncertainty pervading the two-day meeting.
>
>
>
> Speakers disagreed over when and how consciousness evolved and what is required for it to occur. A nervous system? 
> Brain? Complex responses to the environment? The ability to learn and adapt to new circumstances? And if we suspect 
> that something is sentient, and hence capable of suffering, should we grant it rights?
>
>  
>
> In my last post, I focused on the debate over whether fish can suffer. Scholars also considered the sentience of 
> dogs, lampreys, wasps, spiders, crustaceans and other species. Speakers presented evidence that creatures quite 
> unlike us are capable of complex cognition...
>
> Looming over these disputes is the solipsism problem. I know I am consciousness, but I can’t be absolutely sure that 
> anything else is conscious, because I have access only to my own subjective experience. I’m pretty confident that you 
> and other humans are conscious, because we’re so similar. But my confidence in the consciousness of non-human things 
> diminishes in proportion to their dissimilarity from me....
>
> Continue reading at https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/cross-check/jellyfish-sexbots-and-the-solipsism-problem/



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