...I don't think the human species has achieved sentience yet. I think we have achieved glimmers of the possibilities of sentience.
We ask ourselves, Do apes think? Do dogs have feelings? Do birds have emotions? Do dolphins communicate?
All of these are variations on the same question. How intelligent are
these creatures? How aware are they? Do they have souls? Do they have
feelings? Do they hurt?
And underneath that question, no matter
how it's phrased, is the glimmering of an awareness of the self-ness of
other living creatures.
When we allow ourselves to become
aware of the feelings of others, we start to recognize that we are not
alone, that we are part of a community, that we have obligations and
responsibilities to others. As we examine the potential of other species
to hurt, to feel, to think, to communicate, to solve problems, we
become aware that we are connected to them and we become more aware of
our own feelings.
The word is empathy. When we allow ourselves
to experience empathy for animals, for children, for old people, for
family, for colleagues, for strangers -- for people we've never met but
only hear about in the news -- when we begin to share the joys and the
sorrows of people close by and far away, we start to achieve the single
most important step toward actual sentience -- awareness that we are not
alone.
It is in our behavior that we demonstrate who we are.
When we recognize the self-ness of others, their ability to feel, it
changes the way we treat them everywhere we go. It changes how we treat
animals and children and the disabled and elderly. It changes how we
behave in the world. And as we practice that change, it becomes part of
us. Practice makes permanent.
Sentience -- true sentience --
by its nature, cannot be malevolent. It cannot be evil. Because in the
recognition that others can hurt, it takes on the responsibility of not
being the cause of that hurt.
I like what Gerrold has to say on the subject. We are still children slowly making our way into the universe and adulthood. Will we be able to make it before those clinging to childish concepts ruin our planet and cause countless more innocent people pain and death?
