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Since we have no way of knowing what non-humans think about anything, we have no test of the absolute universality of any moral standard. The best we can achieve is whatever appeals to humans, and as we know that humans are very varied, we have to assume in the first instance that each of us is no worse a sample of the population than any other individual.
I have described consciousness in this thread as well as my other threads discussing about universal terminal goal.Since they haven't seem enough, here is a simplified description by stating absolute minimum requirements for a system to be called conscious.- It has internal structures which represent states of itself and its environment.- That internal structures can change according to the change of the environment.
"Nerve cells that represent visual input without subjective components are expected to respond in the same way to a visual stimulus of constant intensity," Nieder said. "Our results, however, conclusively show that nerve cells at higher processing levels of the crow's brain are influenced by subjective experience, or more precisely, produce subjective experiences."The latest findings, published Friday in the journal Science, suggest consciousness may be more widespread throughout the animal kingdom and its origins farther back on the evolutionary timeline than previously thought.The oldest common relative between humans and crows lived some 320 million years ago. It's possible consciousness arose then, during the geologic period known was the Carboniferous. It's also possible consciousness developed independently in a variety of animal lineages."In any case, the capability of conscious experience can be realized in differently structured brains and independently of the cerebral cortex," Nieder said.
Basic principles of bird and mammal brainsMammals can be very smart. They also have a brain with a cortex. It has thus often been assumed that the advanced cognitive skills of mammals are closely related to the evolution of the cerebral cortex. However, birds can also be very smart, and several bird species show amazing cognitive abilities. Although birds lack a cerebral cortex, they do have pallium, and this is considered to be analogous, if not homologous, to the cerebral cortex. An outstanding feature of the mammalian cortex is its layered architecture. In a detailed anatomical study of the bird pallium, Stacho et al. describe a similarly layered architecture. Despite the nuclear organization of the bird pallium, it has a cyto-architectonic organization that is reminiscent of the mammalian cortex.
We apply different rules to a full self driving car than to a non-fsd car.
There is no exception for philosophers, priests or politicians
Legally you must report colliding with a dog because they are considered "valuable property" and the owner may even be liable for the damage to your car if the dog was not under control,.
But is it safe to stop at all? Your FSD car may be proceeding at a reasonable pace and able to stop on sheet ice, but the truck or bus behind you, can't.
Bones of primitive Homo sapiens first appear 300,000 years ago in Africa, with brains as large or larger than ours. They’re followed by anatomically modern Homo sapiens at least 200,000 years ago, and brain shape became essentially modern by at least 100,000 years ago. At this point, humans had braincases similar in size and shape to ours.Assuming the brain was as modern as the box that held it, our African ancestors theoretically could have discovered relativity, built space telescopes, written novels and love songs. Their bones say they were just as human as we are.
We inherited our humanity from peoples in southern Africa 300,000 years ago. The alternative – that everyone, everywhere coincidentally became fully human in the same way at the same time, starting 65,000 years ago – isn’t impossible, but a single origin is more likely.
The role of moral rules with reward and punishment are then to modify internal/subjective preferences of conscious systems to make them aligned with the goal of larger systems they are being part of (e.g. their family, tribe, company, nation). Primitive forms of those manipulation are done by inflicting pain and pleasure which can be directly felt. The next forms are done by causing fear and giving hope, which can only work for conscious systems with capability of understanding cause and effect, so they can predict/anticipate future condition when some information about the present is given.
Most currently existing intelligent machines are not designed to put their existence as one of highest priority in their job. They are considered expendable.
For example, human sacrifice is demonstrably ineffective to prevent famine or natural disaster.
Most currently existing intelligent machines are not designed to put their existence as one of highest priority in their job.