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

Can octopuses feel pain and pleasure? What about crabs, shrimps, insects, or spiders? How do we tell whether a person unresponsive after severe brain injury might be suffering? When does a fetus in the womb start to have conscious experiences? Could there even be rudimentary feelings in miniature models of the human brain, grown from human stem cells? And what about AI?



These are questions about the edge of sentience, and they are subject to enormous, disorienting uncertainty. We desperately...