How to demonstrate sentience?

Related article: How to recognize sentience? (2016)

It is common to ask: how can sentience (the ability to feel) be demonstrated?

Fortunately, we can demonstrate sentience through reasoning by analogy.

But the question has several interpretations and nuances.

On the one hand, whoever asks this question may be pointing out the difficulty of making predictions and obtaining evidence; In short, the difficulty of using the scientific method in the matter of sentience. But, as this article explains, there are many things we can do to address the issue of sentience in the most scientific way possible.

The question can also refer to a specific individual: how to know if an individual feels or not ?; Or it can refer to theories about sentience: what is the correct theory? How can we prove it?

Outline of the content of this article

This article includes:

Two sets of proposals to address the problem of sentience in the most scientific way possible:
1. In relation to the proposed idea
2. Regarding the author, the creation process and its context
Four mechanisms to show if an individual feels:
1. The resemblance (similarity)
2. The best possible explanation
3. Phenomenal Puzzles
4. The theory we are in love with
Two ways to check if a theory of sentience is correct or not:
1. Test their consistency in a simulation
2. Test their predictions in the real world
An approach to finding the right sentience theory:
1. Use maps of theories of sentience and computer simulations

1. How to address the problem of sentience?

In the field of philosophical ideas we can not (easily) make predictions, but we can prove and demand that philosophical hypotheses should have:

Regarding the proposed subject:
- Clarity
- Internal coherence
- Compatibility with the evidence (observations, experiences)
- Explanatory capacity
- Parsimony, in the sense of leaving out accessory or arbitrary elements
Regarding the author, the creation process, and its context:
- Honesty
- Impartiality
- Skepticism
- Recognize the intention
- Recognize the motivation

2. How can we know if an individual has the ability to feel?

Fortunately, we can demonstrate sentience through reasoning by analogy [1].

Each of us has the complete confidence of being sentient. The rest of human beings are very similar to us, and this is surely one of the reasons why we consider them sentient and therefore morally relevant.

The same reasoning also applies to non-human animals (other mammals, birds, reptiles, fish, etc.). The mechanisms we usually use to recognize sentience [2] are based on similarity: similar external appearance, similar internal constitution, similar behavior, similar (evolutionary) origin, similar genetics, and similar “utility”. All of them are different forms of “likeness”. This “method of similarity” to obtain knowledge (about who is sentient) is based on a type of evidence [3] that we could call “reasoning by analogy” [1], a type of inductive reasoning that reminds us of interpolation [4] and extrapolation [5].

In summary, if it looks like or it’s “close” to the things that feel (similar appearance, similar behavior, same —evolutionary— origin, genetic proximity, evolutionary utility), it probably feels.

Additionally, we can also use abductive reasoning, in the style of Sherlock Holmes [6]: unless it is an intentional deception, if a being seems sentient, it surely is. In this sense:

If it seems sentient, probably it is. But
If it has been built simply to seem sentient, then probably it is not.
If it doesn’t seem sentient, it could still be. In this case, one way to clear this mystery is the reasoning by analogy explained at the beginning. But this can be unfair to other beings very different from us because of the streetlight effect.

What other solution or method do we have?

Andrés Gómez Emilsson has proposed a method (or method framework) to determine if an individual feels: A Solution to the Problem of Other Minds Using Mindmelding and Phenomenal Puzzles [7]. (Video) Qualia Research Institute.

Additionally: if we firmly believe in a single theory of sentience, let’s apply it. If we are totally convinced that sentience is generated in a certain way (when certain conditions are met, or from a certain component or function, or that it comes from a certain place…), then the consistent thing would be to apply this criterion.

3. How can we check if a theory of sentience is correct or not?

We can simulate theories about sentience [8] to see if they are consistent.
There are theories of sentience that are testable, at least theoretically. That is, there is a way to experimentally check whether or not the effects predicted by theories occur:
- Non materialist physicalism, by David Pearce [9]
- Under an emergentist paradigm in which it is assumed that sentience has in turn an effect on matter, we could design experiments to detect these unexpected behaviors of the matter [10].

4. How can we find the right sentience theory?

We should consider all the possibilities. For this it is useful to establish maps of theories of sentience [11] and simulations [8] in which these theories can emerge. In these simulations it is interesting to include all possible types of elements that constitute reality according to the different theories [12].

With maps of theories of sentience we can fill gaps in theories, focusing on the products of our research. For instance, if we are focused on reducing suffering, we should focus on theories of sentience with a particular relevance on reducing suffering (if they were true). We can also use computer simulations to understand them, check its implications, and compare them with the real world.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Argument_from_analogy

[2] https://manuherran.com/how-to-recognize-sentience/

[3] https://manuherran.com/about-evidence/

[4] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interpolation

[5] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Extrapolation

[6] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abductive_reasoning

[7] https://qualiacomputing.com/2015/03/31/a-solution-to-the-problem-of-other-minds/

[8] https://manuherran.com/simulation-of-philosophical-hypotheses-about-sentience-a-system-for-understanding-and-assessment-of-metaphysical-theories-of-sentience/

[9] https://www.physicalism.com/

[10 ] https://manuherran.com/three-solutions-for-the-hard-problems-of-sentience/

[11] https://manuherran.com/a-map-of-theories-approaches-and-paradigms-related-to-consciousness-sentience-and-identity/

[12] https://manuherran.com/what-are-the-different-types-of-basic-elements-that-constitute-reality/