Lindaland
  Lindaland Central
  Are you sentient?

Post New Topic  Post A Reply
profile | register | preferences | faq

UBBFriend: Email This Page to Someone! next newest topic | next oldest topic
Author Topic:   Are you sentient?
BlueRoamer
Knowflake

Posts: 3944
From: Calm Blue Ocean, Calm Blue Ocean
Registered: Jun 2003

posted October 22, 2005 12:31 AM     Click Here to See the Profile for BlueRoamer     Edit/Delete Message
Are all humans sentient?
Is a dolphin sentient?
An ape?
A parrot?
A dog?
A frog?
A fish?
A flea?
A plant?
A paramecium?
A rock?
Are YOU?

Where do you draw the line?
What is sentience?

IP: Logged

Johnny
Knowflake

Posts: 2056
From: Colorado, USA
Registered: Nov 2004

posted October 22, 2005 12:34 AM     Click Here to See the Profile for Johnny     Edit/Delete Message
Isn't sentience like, the ability to recognize self, or something?

Dunno.

IP: Logged

lotusheartone
Knowflake

Posts: 238
From: MOther & Father GOd
Registered: Feb 2008

posted October 22, 2005 12:47 AM     Click Here to See the Profile for lotusheartone     Edit/Delete Message
Sentient-of or capable of feeling; conscious
also see sense

so anything that has senses, or can feel

Love and Light to ALL

IP: Logged

Johnny
Knowflake

Posts: 2056
From: Colorado, USA
Registered: Nov 2004

posted October 22, 2005 12:59 AM     Click Here to See the Profile for Johnny     Edit/Delete Message
What about the consciousness part, LH1? A lot of things can "sense" and "feel", but lack consciousness. Sensing and feeling are pretty universal among animals, plants, and even some robots, but consciousness is pretty rare.

So yeah, I wouldn't think that it would be accurate to call a flea or a paramecium sentient.

IP: Logged

BlueRoamer
Knowflake

Posts: 3944
From: Calm Blue Ocean, Calm Blue Ocean
Registered: Jun 2003

posted October 22, 2005 01:51 AM     Click Here to See the Profile for BlueRoamer     Edit/Delete Message
sen·tience Audio pronunciation of "sentience" ( P ) Pronunciation Key (snshns, -sh-ns)
n.

1. The quality or state of being sentient; consciousness.
2. Feeling as distinguished from perception or thought.

con·scious·ness Audio pronunciation of "consciousness" ( P ) Pronunciation Key (knshs-ns)
n.

1. The state or condition of being conscious.
2. A sense of one's personal or collective identity, including the attitudes, beliefs, and sensitivities held by or considered characteristic of an individual or group: Love of freedom runs deep in the national consciousness.
3.
1. Special awareness or sensitivity: class consciousness; race consciousness.
2. Alertness to or concern for a particular issue or situation: a movement aimed at raising the general public's consciousness of social injustice.
4. In psychoanalysis, the conscious.

Even in the dictionary it's vaguely defined!

IP: Logged

Gemini Nymph
Knowflake

Posts: 2216
From:
Registered: Jul 2004

posted October 22, 2005 06:36 AM     Click Here to See the Profile for Gemini Nymph     Edit/Delete Message
BR, what gives? You having some kind of crisis that's made you inquiring lately?

Anyhow, sentience is a term that has been used to define something that isn't really defineable in a definitive way, at least by the human mind. We use words int his manner all teh time - it's just we are so presumptious, as humans are prone to be, that we think because we have a word for soemthing we think we must actually understand it. LOL.

Sentience is a mystery and by mystery I mean in the philsoophical sense - something which, in its fullest sense or nature, is beyond what our limited minds can grasp. We can see enough of a mystery to know it exists and it's real, but we can't see the whole shabang to really know it completely and thoroughly. Of course this begs the question - do we really know anything completely and thoroughly? Or is everything we think we know only one facet of a greater mystery? Hmmm....

IP: Logged

sue g
Knowflake

Posts: 8591
From: former land of the leprechaun
Registered: Sep 2004

posted October 22, 2005 07:00 AM     Click Here to See the Profile for sue g     Edit/Delete Message
Great questions BR....I always thought you were a highly deveoped being........

and YES YES YES I am "one of them".....I FEEL....and SENSE all the time.....more than I should maybe at times........

And no GN he isnt going thro a crisis....he is moving up to the next level girl......he is as usual seeing all to clearly....a vibrational shift....

Love to you BR


Sue xxx

IP: Logged

BlueRoamer
Knowflake

Posts: 3944
From: Calm Blue Ocean, Calm Blue Ocean
Registered: Jun 2003

posted October 22, 2005 02:03 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for BlueRoamer     Edit/Delete Message
I sense that in you too, Sue. Your posts radiate compassion and clarity.

GN, chock it up to pluto sitting right on my natal neptune?

I feel that among humans, even, there are different levels of sentience. Some humans seem almost on the level of animals, whereas others, well, you know.

IP: Logged

sue g
Knowflake

Posts: 8591
From: former land of the leprechaun
Registered: Sep 2004

posted October 22, 2005 02:29 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for sue g     Edit/Delete Message
Thanks BR......that a wonderful thing to hear.....God knows there are enough cold and unfeeling ones out there....ugh....makes me shudder....cant stand that myself......

Hope youre well and happy...good to see you posting..

God bless

love

Sue xxx xxx

IP: Logged

Iqhunk
Knowflake

Posts: 2132
From: Chennai
Registered: Oct 2005

posted October 23, 2005 06:14 AM     Click Here to See the Profile for Iqhunk     Edit/Delete Message
Sentience: Ability to make a joke and laugh, even at yourself.
No animal I know of can crack a joke or understand a joke and laugh. Least of all at itself.

IP: Logged

sue g
Knowflake

Posts: 8591
From: former land of the leprechaun
Registered: Sep 2004

posted October 23, 2005 11:11 AM     Click Here to See the Profile for sue g     Edit/Delete Message
Oh in that case I am definately one........hahahaha......I laugh at myself every day, thats a very Irish thing too.......a pity more cant do it hey ???

xxx

IP: Logged

TheEvolution
Knowflake

Posts: 715
From: Mumbai, India
Registered: Aug 2005

posted October 23, 2005 12:40 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for TheEvolution     Edit/Delete Message
Definitions of sentient on the Web:

* endowed with feeling and unstructured consciousness; "the living knew themselves just sentient puppets on God's stage"- T.E.Lawrence
* consciously perceiving; "sentient of the intolerable load"; "a boy so sentient of his surroundings"- W.A.White
wordnet.princeton.edu/perl/webwn

* Sentience is the capacity for basic consciousness — the ability to feel or perceive, not necessarily including the faculty of self-awareness. The word sentient is often confused with the word sapient, which can connotate knowledge, higher consciousness, or apperception. The root of the confusion is that the word conscious has a number of different meanings in English. (One can easily distinguish the two by looking at their Latin roots: sentire, "to feel"; and sapere, "to know".)
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sentient

* Self-aware, choice-making consciousness. Humans and cetaceans (dolphins and whales) are the two sentient species on earth.
www.summerjoy.com/Glossary.html

* Something that can feel, or experience some form of emotion.
www.reasoned.org/glossary.htm

* (sen·ti·ent) (sen¢she-[schwa]nt) [L. sentiens] able to feel; sensitive; having sensation or feeling.
www.mercksource.com/pp/us/cns/cns_hl_dorlands.jspzQzpgzEzzSzppdocszSzuszSzcommonzSzdorlandszSzdorlandzSzdmd_s_08zPzhtm

* 1: responsive to or conscious of sense impressions 2: aware
biology.kenyon.edu/slonc/bio3/2000projects/poirier_a_lloyd_t/Glossary.html

IP: Logged

All times are Eastern Standard Time

next newest topic | next oldest topic

Administrative Options: Close Topic | Archive/Move | Delete Topic
Post New Topic  Post A Reply
Hop to:

Contact Us | Linda-Goodman.com

Copyright © 2007

Powered by Infopop www.infopop.com © 2000
Ultimate Bulletin Board 5.46a