Sentience

[TheBassoonist]

I was thinking about sentience earlier today. Specifically the question about when a human becomes sentient, as used in Star Trek: TNG. So what I'm asking is when does a human become self-aware? How can we know if someone, or something, is self-aware?

[Bath]

There's no specific moment of self-awareness. It's something we "learn" over time, something our brain grows into. I would say personally somewhere between 3-6 years old? But that's just through observation and memory. Then that self-awareness is nurtured and turned into a "personality" and "identity."

We know something is self-aware if it's... just that... aware of its existence. "Are you aware of your life?" "Yes." Language is a big factor is sentience, too.

[Human]

There's no specific moment of self-awareness. It's something we "learn" over time, something our brain grows into. I would say personally somewhere between 3-6 years old? But that's just through observation and memory. Then that self-awareness is nurtured and turned into a "personality" and "identity."

We know something is self-aware if it's... just that... aware of its existence. "Are you aware of your life?" "Yes." Language is a big factor is sentience, too.

I agree
I think you need to understand the meaning in a way, to become sentient. Chimpanzees know they're alive, but they don't acknowledge it. They just take it as it is.

[Manjusri]

Sentience is acknowledged only when your conscious mind questions your subconscious mind, such as you're doing in this thread. You are capable of questioning the reality behind your existence, therefore giving you sentience.

Numerous other species are able to do this, like chimpanzees, specifically bonobos. They're one of the smartest species of chimpanzees. The problem is that some people confuse sentience with primal instincts. For example, dogs are not (at least not proven to be) sentient. They go by their instincts and nothing more.

Personally i'm not exactly sure when humans become sentient, i'm not able to remember when i first became self-aware. I think though that that humans are sentient as early as a few weeks after birth. The brain develops exceptionally within the early years of life, and i see no reason as to why humans would become sentient only after a certain age. That would be an interesting neuroscience research project though

[Bath]

I agree
I think you need to understand the meaning in a way, to become sentient. Chimpanzees know they're alive, but they don't acknowledge it. They just take it as it is.

Recently, they were successfully able to teach Koko the gorilla about death. She signed "sad" and "cry". I think we can safely say now that she's sentient.

I think sentience is also subjective. We see ourselves as sentient, but some other intelligent alien race could have more awareness about life and see us like dogs and cats.

[Human]

Recently, they were successfully able to teach Koko the gorilla about death. She signed "sad" and "cry". I think we can safely say now that she's sentient.

I think sentience is also subjective. We see ourselves as sentient, but some other intelligent alien race could have more awareness about life and see us like dogs and cats.

I saw that video... It was great. Maybe I should replace chimpanzee with dog or something. I definitely think a lot of the apes are highly intelligent.