Sentientism

Randall is an author and environmental, animal, climate and constitutional law professor at Monmouth University in New Jersey. His books include “What Can Animal Law Learn From Environmental Law?” and “Climate Change and the Voiceless: Protecting Future Generations, Wildlife, and Natural Resources”. In these Sentientist Conversations (subscribe!), we talk about the two most important questions: “what’s real?” & “what matters?”. Sentientism is “evidence, commitment & compassion for all sentient beings.” Full show notes here: https://sentientism.info/how-can-i-have-been-morally-asleep-for-so-long-prof-randall-abate-new-sentientist-conversation Watch the video here.  We discuss: Academic silos between animal/environmental/constitutional law and between law, philosophy and advocacy The disconnect between environmental and animal ethics and law Growing up in a Catholic household, more social than spiritual Appreciating religion as a topic of study, not as something to practice Exploring Eastern religions and spirituality Feeling deeply spiritual without religion Compassion as a theme in many religions Remaining open-minded about religious ideas Agnosticism and atheism Awe, wonder and connectedness within a naturalistic worldview and their commonality with supernatural/spiritual emotions Freedom of belief, but not freedom to use supernatural beliefs to harm others Compassion for all living things & respect for nature, but not realising the link to animal product consumption (even as an environmental law professor) until teaching animal law “How can I have been morally asleep for so long?” The brain-washing of animal product consumption: health, normality Not knowing any v*gans The difficult social process of giving up animal products How much easier going v*gan is now Is the ethical argument re: animal farming over? Anthropocentrism & human supremacy Biocentrism & ecocentrism. Does Sentientism go far enough? Instrumental vs. intrinsic value Christian dominion & stewardship And more... (see here) You can find Randall here at Monmouth. Sentientism is “Evidence, reason & compassion for all sentient beings.” More at sentientism.info. Join our “wall” using this simple form. Everyone interested, Sentientist or not, is welcome to join our groups. Our main one is here on FaceBook. Thanks to Graham Bessellieu for his post-prod work on this video. Follow him at @cgbessellieu.

Josh Gellers is an associate professor at the University of North Florida. His work spans animal, environmental and artificial intelligence ethics and law. He is a research fellow with the Earth System Governance Project and is a Fulbright scholar. He is Author of “Rights for Robots: Artificial Intelligence, Animal and Environmental Law” (open access!). Full show notes are here: https://sentientism.info/de-centring-the-human-new-sentientist-conversation-with-josh-gellers-also-happy-new-year In these Sentientist Conversations (subscribe!), we talk about the two most important questions: “what’s real?” & “what matters?”. Sentientism is “evidence, commitment & compassion for all sentient beings.” Our conversation is also here on YouTube. We discuss: Seeing the impact of climate first hand in South Florida Spanning “hard” and social sciences, rights, ethics and law, animal, environmental and artificial intelligence… inter-disciplinary Sophia the robot and non-human entity rights Growing up in a culturally Jewish household, with a mix of conservative religious and more secular liberal perspectives Doubting religion from an early age How could there be an omnipotent, omniscient, all-loving god when there is so much suffering? Seeing examples of sexism and societal shaming within orthodox religion Kosher laws as historic public health recommendations Exposure to Buddhist animal ethics in Sri Lanka (living with spiders) “Other ways of knowing and worlding” and pluralism Wanting to say there are certain universals, but hesitating to say “I have the right way” Guilt and consciousness about how to be in the world Learning, respecting, humility, open-mindedness, compassion Doing the above without slipping into a relativism that allows the powerful to oppress others Critical environmental ethic with underlying pillars: Compassionate, resilience, sensitivity to the needs of others – ground rules as a safety net vs. relativism Needlessly causing harm isn’t compassionate, whatever your cultural norms People who care about people they know and people who care about people they don’t know And more... Full show notes are here: https://sentientism.info/de-centring-the-human-new-sentientist-conversation-with-josh-gellers-also-happy-new-year Josh is @JoshGellers and his home page is at joshgellers.com. Sentientism is “Evidence, reason & compassion for all sentient beings.” More at sentientism.info. Join our “wall” using this simple form. Everyone interested, Sentientist or not, is welcome to join our groups. Our main one is here on FaceBook.

Full show notes at: https://sentientism.info/diverse-sentients-could-live-in-mutual-symbiosis-graham-bessellieu-new-sentientist-conversation. The video is here on the Sentientism YouTube channel. Graham is an artist, a photographer and a video/audio content producer. In these Sentientist Conversations, we talk about the two most important questions: “what’s real?” & “what matters?”. Sentientism is “evidence, commitment & compassion for all sentient beings.” We discuss: Being raised Christian Going from a soprano to a bass during a church choir tour Love and compassion as central to Christian ethics Eternal torture in hell maybe isn’t ethical – a trigger for re-thinking Comparative religion, logical contradictions The weakness of theodicies (explanations for evil) New Atheism, Dennett, Harris and naturalism Are most religious people more moral than their religions? A naturalistic grounding for ethics Peter Singer’s “Animal Liberation”. Developing ethics through evidence and reason Upton Sinclair’s “The Jungle” and factory farming Earthlings, the documentary How ethical conviction helped Graham work through the practical and social challenges of giving up animal products How some of the most fundamental philosophical challenges have the simplest answers, but social norms get in the way Is animal farming a “necessary evil”? Our non-human animal friends make a cameo appearance The amazing ethical gymnastics people do to try and justify continuing to consume animal products (toddler farming anyone?) Normalising rationality and sentiocentrism. Getting them to be mainstream Why people should adopt Sentientism quickly while it’s still edgy and cool Clean meat and plant-based meats Ending animal farming and exploitation and using sanctuaries as part of transition Zoonotic disease risks The common ground, even a political majority, re: ending factory farming: Sentience Politics, Cory Bookers’ farm bill Extending legal personhood to non-humans Mitigating wild animal suffering (see Animal Ethics and Wild Animal Initiative orgs) Difficult problems and uncertain solutions don’t justify excluding sentient beings from moral consideration Effective Altruism – how to do the most good David Deutsch & “The Beginning of Infinity”… Getting to better problems Steven Pinker & “Enlightenment Now” ...and more... Full show notes here Sentientism is “Evidence, reason & compassion for all sentient beings.” You can find out more at Sentientism.info. Join hundreds of others on our “wall” using this simple form. Everyone interested, Sentientist or not, is welcome to join our community groups. Our main group is here on FaceBook. Thanks to Graham Bessellieu for his post-prod work on this video. Follow him at @cgbessellieu.

Gill is an author, coach & counsellor. She was a UK parliamentary candidate for the Green Party. She focuses on helping people live in balance with themselves & the rest of the living world. Her books include “The Trembling Warrior”, “Hearing our Calling” & “The Game”. In these Sentientist Conversations, we talk about the two most important questions: “what’s real?” & “what matters?”. Sentientism is “evidence, commitment & compassion for all sentient beings.” Full show notes are at https://sentientism.info/being-in-balance-with-ourselves-and-the-biosphere-author-gill-coombs-new-sentientist-conversation. The video of our conversation is here on the Sentientism YouTube. You can find Gill at gillcoombs.co.uk and on Twitter at @CoombsGill. Sentientism is “Evidence, reason & compassion for all sentient beings.” You can find out more at Sentientism.info. Join hundreds of others on our “wall” using this simple form. Everyone interested, Sentientist or not, is welcome to join our community groups. Our main group is here on FaceBook. Thanks to Graham Bessellieu for his post-prod work on this video. Follow him at @cgbessellieu.

This episode is a cross-post from the Future Based Podcast where Annika van den Born interviewed me (Jamie) about Sentientism. The podcast is part of the Future Based initiative that aims to facilitate inter-disciplinary discussions and collaborations about our collective future. Annika and I discuss how naturalism and sentiocentrism come together in Sentientism. We talk about the risks of environmental movements extending their moral circles too far (biocentrism, ecocentrism or holism) while ignoring sentient non-human animals. We also talk about what a Sentientist utopia might look and how we might move towards it. Sentientism is “Evidence, reason & compassion for all sentient beings.” You can find out more at Sentientism.info. Why not join our “wall” using our simple “I’m a Sentientist” form? Everyone interested, Sentientist or not, is welcome to join our community groups. Our main group is here on FaceBook. We have a fascinating range of compassionate, rational people there from around 90 countries so far!

Full show notes are here: https://sentientism.info/how-can-we-do-the-most-good-for-non-human-animals-jamie-harris-animal-advocacy-careers-co-founder-sentience-institute-researcher-new-sentientist-conversation You can find the video of our conversation here https://youtu.be/ea_v6kWCGZQ Jamie is co-founder of and researcher at the non-profit Animal Advocacy Careers, a researcher at the Sentience Institute and host of the Sentience Institute Podcast (subscribe!) In these Sentientist Conversations, we talk about the two most important questions: “what’s real?” & “what matters?”. Sentientism is “evidence, commitment and compassion for all sentient beings.” Sentientism is “Evidence, reason & compassion for all sentient beings.” You can find out more at Sentientism.info. Help normalise compassion and rationality by joining our “wall” using this simple form https://sentientism.info/im-a-sentientist. Everyone interested, Sentientist or not, is welcome to join our community groups. Our main group is here on FaceBook https://www.facebook.com/groups/sentientism. Thanks to Graham Bessellieu for his post-prod work on this video. Follow him @cgbessellieu.

Paul Shapiro https://twitter.com/PaulHShapiro is the author of the national bestseller "Clean Meat": https://cleanmeat.com/. He's also the CEO of The Better Meat Co. https://www.bettermeat.co/, a four-time TEDx speaker, host of the Business for Good Podcast https://www.businessforgoodpodcast.com/ & inductee in the Animal Rights Hall of Fame.  In these Sentientist Conversations, we talk about the two most important questions: “what’s real?” & “what matters?”. Sentientism is "evidence, commitment and compassion for all sentient beings." https://sentientism.info/ Our conversation is also on our YouTube channel - subscribe there too! https://youtu.be/8oupdUTrS18 We discuss: - Being fellow "sents" (thanks AJ Jacobs!) - Advocating Sentientism before hearing the term - Vegetarian then vegan at 13 in 1993 (despite thinking it would lead to death...) - Carl Lewis as an inspirational vegan - Volunteering in animal protection as a teenager - "Trying to end humanity's war on the rest of the planet" - Founding Compassion over Killing at high-school & taking it national - https://www.humanesociety.org/ - Paul's "Clean Meat" book - how food tech might do the most good - Easier to act our way into a new way of thinking than to think our way into a new way of acting. Making unethical practices obselete - Ending slavery as a lesson in social change - Founding The Better Meat Co - Jewish upbringing & identity - "Even if you question the supernatural they don't kick you out" - An animal conscious family. Rescue dogs as family members (now Eddie https://www.instagram.com/eddiethepittie.) - Switching to take the perspective of non-humans + standing up to "frog baseball" - Compassion as a moral foundation - Being kicked out of Hebrew class for asking why god would ask for sacrifices - The rich tradition of animal compassion/veg*nism within Judaism - Israel as the #2 most vegan country - Utilitarianism & Peter Singer - "anti suffering & pro happiness" - Loving kindness meditation - Aspiring to The Paradoxical Commandments - Evolution isn't perfectly driven towards truth or rationality - Groups can socially reward individual faith in fictions. Some delusions can be useful - Humility at the heart of naturalism & science. Being OK not knowing - The confidence that can come with ignorance - Leaving the world a better place - Not letting the perfect be the enemy of the good - The ethical inertia of social norms & traditions - The Honour Code http://appiah.net/books/the-honor-code/ - Animal farming will be condemned by future generations - Consistent US voting against poor farming practices. Need that codified into law & corporate policy - Cost reduction pressure worsens farm conditions - Tech can render exploitative practices obselete (like cars re: horses, kerosene re: whales, pens vs. quills) - Fast, cheap, easy alternatives likely to reduce more suffering than ethics - It's hard to condemn a system you're still part of - The moral argument has already been won re: ending animal farming - People buy food mainly because of price, taste, convenience (not ethics or env.) - Business for Good vs. ending capitalism? Purpose and/or profit?

This episode is a cross-post from the Give Yourself The Chat podcast where I (Jamie) was interviewed about Sentientism. Peter Lewis is a coach, consultant and, as we found out in this conversation, a fellow Sentientist. Peter's podcast focuses on personal development and practical philosophy. If that sounds interesting - why not subscribe to the podcast and sign up for his mailing list at https://peterlewiscoaching.com/? Sentientism is “Evidence, reason & compassion for all sentient beings.” You can find out more at Sentientism.info. Why not join our “wall” using our simple “I’m a Sentientist” form? Everyone interested, Sentientist or not, is welcome to join our community groups. Our main group is here on FaceBook. We have a fascinating range of compassionate, rational people there from around 90 countries so far!

Full show notes & links here. Roman is a Professor of Computer Science & Engineering at the University of Louisville. He is known for his work on behavioral biometrics, the security of cyberworlds & artificial intelligence safety. He founded the field of intellectology – the analysis of the forms & limits of intelligence. He is director of the Cyber Security Laboratory in the department of Computer Engineering &Computer Science at the Speed School of Engineering. Roman has written over 100 publications, including many books spanning these fields. In these Sentientist Conversations, we talk about the two most important questions: “what’s real?” & “what matters?” To catch the cameo from Luna the puppy ("seems conscious") watch the video of our conversation here. Don't forget to subscribe to our channel while you're there. We discuss: Growing up in the Soviet Union. Not much religion around. Not meeting anyone religious until coming to the US as an adult Not finding religious arguments interesting or compelling Fascination with intersection of big ideas, philosophy, science Questions can come from religion, but standards of evidence come from science Comfort with others holding supernatural beliefs – helps us remain open-minded Is god analogous with someone running a world simulation? We need to get better at evaluating evidence. Should be separate from theories/hypotheses The need for scientific humility Deep fakes Freedom as an ethical foundation, subject to not hurting others or restricting the freedom of others Can we develop a pop-up AI that guides our ethics? Consciousness / sentience warrants protection Can Artificial Intelligences achieve consciousness or even super-consciousness? Humans might need to beg future AIs for our rights, as we grant rights to animals The hypocrisy of thinking animals should have rights, but enjoying eating them (theory vs. practice & cognitive dissonance) Why so many AI researchers are ready to acknowledge AI sentience but forget or disregard non-human animal sentience Consciousness, sentience, qualia, the “Hard Problem”, David Chalmers Assessing sentience The role of observers in quantum physics. Could there be some non-material element of consciousness? Meeting Luna the puppy “Seems conscious!” Will future AIs warrant protection/rights Ending animal farming to set a good example to our future AI overlords AIs will prefer “sentientism” to “humanism” Substrate independence Sentience/consciousness as a spectrum, simple to super (beyond human) Ethical challenges with non-sentient AI If human agents can’t agree (value alignment problem), can we even move towards a shared environment that will make us all happy? Maybe everyone could have their own individual virtual world! Even a positively negotiated shared environment wouldn’t be as good for each of us as a perfect individual environment – just don’t switch it off Can animal farming go away in a few years via clean-meat etc? Veganism and moral resolutions to cognitive dissonance, vs. tech alternatives removing blockers The dangers of disenfranchising humans if we grant rights too broadly (e.g. to trillions of bacteria or sentient AIs) Equal vs. degrees of moral consideration “Most of us will be as ethical as our choices”.

Vicky is Managing Director of The Humane League UK . She trained as a vet and worked in the animal agriculture industry before leaving to focus on campaigning for non-human animals. In these Sentientist Conversations, we talk about the two most important questions: “what’s real?” & “what matters?” Full show notes and links here. This conversation is also available here on our Sentientism YouTube Channel. Why not subscribe there too? We discuss: - Feeling an early affinity with animals, volunteering at animal sanctuaries at 10 years old, always wanting to be a vet - Training as a vet, seeing the reality of animal farming & feeling helpless. How vets are caught up in the machinery of the industry - How broken animal agriculture is & how much suffering is caused - Leaving to advocate for animals, with CIFW then Humane League UK - Driving institutional change. Working with companies to reduce the animal suffering they cause at scale - The relief of meeting others that take sentience & suffering seriously - Questioning then leaving Christianity as a teenager & the death of a close family member as a turning point - Finding comfort in naturalism. “We have our time & then it passes” - Naturalistic wonder, awe, meaning & a sense of connection, enhanced through a silent meditation retreat (vs. “spirituality”) - Suffering/flourishing of others as the foundation of morality - Meditation as a practice of focusing on our own sentient experience and feeling gratitude - Relativism & supernatural ethics are arbitrary vs. grounding ethics in a naturalistic understanding of sentience - Going vegetarian (despite challenges from parents re: nutrition) - The shock of watching an artificial insemination unit operate - Fighting cognitive dissonance on the way to going vegan + how much it helps to have others around you to help ease the transition - Visiting Ghana as an eye opener re: global development & the history of colonialism - Considering the ethical impacts of our personal consumption - Cognitive dissonance as a way of protecting ourselves given the scale of suffering. Avoiding burn-out - The Diving Bell & the Butterfly - Taking the perspective of others, rather than just imposing your own assumptions - Wild-animal suffering & flourishing. Nature programmes as “snuff movies” - Categorising an animal as “farmed” or “wild” doesn’t reduce the animals’ experience of its own suffering - Red vs. grey squirrels - Not knowing how to help doesn’t warrant excluding beings from our moral circle - Culling as the default for human intervention in the wild - Ending animal farming as an obvious win-win-win - Important problems are often the easiest (e.g. end animal farming) - Animal farming change is happening fast now (e.g. ending cages) & consumer consciousness is shifting - Veganism getting less “weird”, approaching a tipping point? - Concern for species is mostly about human interests - Economic & social drivers slowing change - “Lesser developed countries” leap-frogging past the mistakes made by “more developed countries” on both climate & animal agriculture, because of more compassionate values and more radical innovation - While you’re participating in something, it’s hard to think clearly about its ethics - Freeing our latent morality! - A more socialist future?