Highlights: Edge cases of sentience & acting ethically despite massive uncertainty | Jonathan Birch

Highlights from our episode with science philosopher Jonathan about cases where sentience is unclear — like in coma patients, foetuses, digital minds, and invertebrates — and how we can still make ethical policies even though we don't have all the answers.

There's much more to say on this topic, so if you enjoy this, definitely check out the full episode:    • Edge cases of sentience & how to act ...  

Highlights include:
• Luisa's intro (00:00:00)
• The history of neonatal surgery without anaesthetic (00:00:23)
• Overconfidence around disorders of consciousness (00:03:17)
• Separating abortion from the issue of foetal sentience (00:07:26)
• The cases for and against neural organoids (00:11:30)
• Artificial sentience arising from whole brain emulations of roundworms and fruit flies (00:15:45)
• Using citizens' assemblies to do policymaking (00:22:00)

Learn more and find the full transcript on the 80,000 Hours website:
https://80000hours.org/podcast/episod...