Citation

Author Website

https://whalesanctuaryproject.org/people/lori-marino/

Thread

Jonathan Birch, Précis of The Edge of Sentience: Risk and Precaution in Humans, Other Animals, and AI

Abstract

Sentience evolved to allow organisms to move through their environment avoiding harms and achieving benefits. Sentience did not evolve from computation. It evolved from valenced feelings. AI (even robots) are not embodied and are not the kind of thing that needs to be sentient. There is no way to get from computations to feelings. They are qualitatively different things. We should avoid being lulled into thinking that an inanimate object designed to engage our propensity for anthropomorphism, like AI, is actually a mind.

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 2.0 Generic License

Author Biography

Lori Marino is a neuroscientist specialized in animal behavior, intelligence, and self-awareness, as well as wild animal captivity issues. President of the Whale Sanctuary Project, Lori is also co-director (with Kathy Hessler) of the Animal Law and Science Program at George Washington University. She is the 2026 recipient of the Drake Award from the SETI Institute.  Website

DOI

10.51291/2377-7478.1940