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RE: Does Artificial Intelligence Merit Moral Concern and Rights?
Yeah, it's wrong to harm other psychological beings. Animals feel, and can suffer. We shouldn't take their lives either. We can eat other things and be healthier.
I must note that carrots and microbes are vastly more complex than the best computers we can build.
They are very different from us, but that doesn't mean we can say we know they aren't conscious. There's considerable research that indicates plants do have some sort of consciousness.
We have no idea what consciousness is, where it comes from, or how it's made. There's a lot of speculative research, and some evidence that our brain is involved in our consciousness. Given that computers are far more different from us than carrots, ascribing some consciousness to computers and not carrots is leaping the shark, IMHO.
That research is looking at biological responses, not psychological. Plants don't have consciousness, they are biological constructs that operate according to that biological sensory stimulus response, like cells do. They lack the psychological dimension (consciousness) that most animal biological constructs possess.
That's one theory. It's not the only one. I can't say one way or another.
I am skeptical of claims based on speculation.
Plants appear not to have brains. They nonetheless communicate and react to each other's messages. That is behaviour that indicates something other than the brain is involved in consciousness too.
There's a lot of research now ongoing regarding how our gut flora affect our mental state. This, when verified (which it will be) also indicates that such ecosystems effect consciousness, and definitely has no brain.
I'm not convinced brains are necessary for consciousness.
After all, I've met some people that seem to lack the former yet possess some simulacrum of the latter =p