Granting that humans and paperclips are sentient doesn't imply that no other things are sentient.
How are you defining 'sentient', anyway?
Granting that humans and paperclips are sentient doesn't imply that no other things are sentient.
True.
How are you defining 'sentient', anyway?
sentient(X) = "structured such that X is, or could converge on through self-modification, the ultimate purpose of existence"
Not a perfect definition, but a lot better than, "X responds to its environment, and an ape brain is wired to like X".
Update: This post has also been superseded - new comments belong in the latest thread.
The second thread has now also exceeded 500 comments, so after 42 chapters of MoR it's time for a new thread.
From the first thread: