Humans can distinguish stimuli they are aware of from ones they are not aware of. Below-awareness-level stimuli are not ethically significant to humans—if someone pricks you with a needle and you don’t feel pain, then you don’t feel pain and don’t care much. Therefore only systems that can implement awareness detectors are ethically significant.
Humans can distinguish stimuli they are aware of from ones they are not aware of. Below-awareness-level stimuli are not ethically significant to humans—if someone pricks you with a needle and you don’t feel pain, then you don’t feel pain and don’t care much. Therefore only systems that can implement awareness detectors are ethically significant.