[superb-owl]

Why should it have to be able to describe its qualia at all? A dog can't. By the magic of empathy I can _infer_ what a dog is feeling, but its only through similarity to myself and other humans.

If we met a pre-linguistic alien species, it's likely we wouldn't be able to infer _anything_ about their internal state.

[ThrowawayTestr]

By that logic how do you know rocks aren't sentient?

[superb-owl]

That's the thing! You don't!

Conversely, there's no way for me to know that you _are_ sentient (a la Solipsism).