The study of consciousness (or sentience or whatever the appropriate term is) is definitely a valid field of research and one of science and philosophies all-time greatest mysteries. What exactly is the underlying mechanism and theory of consciousness? For example, A sound scientific theory of consciousness should be able to definitively answer the questions (and defend that answer):
- Is an ant sentient? Why ? Why not? What is it aware of?
- What about an amoeba? a bacteria? a virus? a cell? At what level does it stop?
- What about the plant kingdom?
- A rock? An atom? Why? Why not?
- An LLM? A program? A computer?..
- Will an AGI be sentient ?
The premise of the article itself is strange - maybe it was intended to stir up debate and controversy. Its one thing to say that study of consciousness lacks sound foundations. But implying the very notion that "animals are conscious" is somehow controversial? If animals aren't conscious whats the point of animal cruelty or animal welfare laws? I can take a power drill to my roomba but can i do the same to a cat or a dog? Most people would automatically say no. Its something most people intuitively understand (but maybe its learned behaviour - kids can be cruel until they learn empathy).
edit : Also the illy-dallying around the question of crustaceans seems shifty. Maybe the authors don't want to confront the moral question of boiling lobsters alive?
I agree that it's an interesting question worth exploring.
However I'm wondering why we are still at that stage of the game. Animals seem like a "duh, of course" answer to me. They have a brain, a nervous system, they're so close to us that the answer should be obvious.
Now an amoeba yes, that's (to me, at least) an open discussion. LLMs and AGIs too, they're too new and unknown.
But animals? Come on, we had thousands of years to figure that out.
I'm a neuroscientist who used to work with animals, and while I didn't focus on consciousness, I don't think it's a reasonable scientific perspective to start from the assumption that animals don't and require proof that they do. Clearly there's a spectrum of intelligence across species, but plenty of animals appear to have theory of mind, complex emotions, object permanence, tool use, long term memory, spatial navigation, some idea of the self, etc. Humans are better at language, and math, and destroying the planet, but that doesn't explain why our feeling of consciousness wouldn't be substantially similar to a great ape or an Australian shepherd.
I did. Obviously. Why would I retell what another philosopher said? That would be rather silly. If they want something to be known, they can let you know themselves.
> Which others disagree?
Whichever ones disagree. Again, they can speak for themselves.
> Some claim that Mathematics is the Queen of Sciences
In other words, not science?
> yet without which science is and has nothing
I am not sure you have made a convincing case that science is more than nothing. If that is what you are trying to convince us of, you are not making providing a compelling argument.
Everything is a research, until it's proven beyond belief. Obvious doesn't cut it from a scientific standpoint. Noticing something, and proving something are two different things. And mutually agreeing upon the findings is also something else. Consciousness is a central concept for people, and so, there are many ideas surrounding it - human and non-human consciousness alike.
edit : Also the illy-dallying around the question of crustaceans seems shifty. Maybe the authors don't want to confront the moral question of boiling lobsters alive?