So at what level of self-awareness does humanity say a species needs to reach to be considered sentient life? There are many psycological traits that all mammals have on our planet that are a little different from each other, like the "classic conditioning" a dog has to be extremely happy when his master has come home--something that you will never see in another species. Some species have the same kind of traits, like the fact that dolphins and humans both have sex for pleasure.

There are all of these psycological traits that are known about all mammilian species, but which ones and how many does it take to be setient?

Just because these animals can't speak, it doesn't make them nonsentient life. Parrot's can say many words(which I am not sure would be more psycological/physiological trait or more some sort of cognitive association), but that doesn't make them any more sentient than a killer whale with its massive brain.

You see, there are many psycological traits to choose from, but we need to know the right combination of traits to have sentient life. But just because the combination that worked for humanity has been the only obvious one that has worked, it doesn't mean that it is the only correct combination.


Warm Regards,

Chris

P.S. Even humans have psycological traits that no other species has like the fact that women for some reason always want cuddle after sex. :)

• hey, i like to cuddle tooo though... - murat - February 20, 2003 - 14:16 UTC