The essays on non-human animals, for example, made me realize for the first time that it may well be possible that the net utility on Earth over all conscious creatures is massively negative.
The truth is, we really don’t know which creatures are conscious. On the one hand, I’m quite confident that animals that can pass the mirror test are conscious, self aware, and capable of suffering. Most animals don’t pass this test.
On the other hand, consider the fact that you can have a “pain” response without actually being conscious of it. It happens all the time. If you touch the hot stove, you reflexively withdraw your hand before the nerve impulse has time to even reach your brain. The spinal cord does the processing. I’m not ready to call my spinal cord conscious, are you? (If you want to go down that route, how do you know rocks aren’t conscious?) The nervous systems of many species are simpler than that. I don’t believe jellyfish are conscious. Just because an animal reacts to a “pain” signal, doesn’t mean it actually hurts. This is true even of humans.
There are many cases in between these extremes. I don’t know which animals are conscious in these cases. But that doesn’t mean they can suffer like humans do. Humans have a lot of willpower. They can override their basic instincts to an astonishing degree using their frontal lobes. Therefore, instincts and emotions may have to have evolved to be much stronger in humans than in other conscious animals to compensate. Where a human must experience an overwhelming urge, an animal may only need a mild preference to act. Animals that do suffer may suffer much less than one might think.
The truth is, we really don’t know which creatures are conscious. On the one hand, I’m quite confident that animals that can pass the mirror test are conscious, self aware, and capable of suffering. Most animals don’t pass this test.
On the other hand, consider the fact that you can have a “pain” response without actually being conscious of it. It happens all the time. If you touch the hot stove, you reflexively withdraw your hand before the nerve impulse has time to even reach your brain. The spinal cord does the processing. I’m not ready to call my spinal cord conscious, are you? (If you want to go down that route, how do you know rocks aren’t conscious?) The nervous systems of many species are simpler than that. I don’t believe jellyfish are conscious. Just because an animal reacts to a “pain” signal, doesn’t mean it actually hurts. This is true even of humans.
There are many cases in between these extremes. I don’t know which animals are conscious in these cases. But that doesn’t mean they can suffer like humans do. Humans have a lot of willpower. They can override their basic instincts to an astonishing degree using their frontal lobes. Therefore, instincts and emotions may have to have evolved to be much stronger in humans than in other conscious animals to compensate. Where a human must experience an overwhelming urge, an animal may only need a mild preference to act. Animals that do suffer may suffer much less than one might think.