My understanding from Eliezer’s writing is that he’s an illusionist (and/or a higher-order theorist) about consciousness. However, illusionism (and higher-order theories) are compatible with mammals and birds, at least, being conscious. It depends on the specifics.
I’m also an illusionist about consciousness and very sympathetic to the idea that some kinds of higher-order processes are required, but I do think mammals and birds, at least, are very probably conscious, and subject to consciousness illusions. My understanding is that Humphrey (Humphrey, 2022, Humphrey, 2023a, Humphrey, 2023b, Humphrey, 2017, Romeo, 2023, Humphrey, 2006, Humphrey, 2011) and Muehlhauser (2017) (a report for Open Phil, but representing his own views) would say the same. Furthermore, I think the standard interpretation of illusionism doesn’t require consciousness illusions or higher-order processes in conscious subjects at all, and instead a system is conscious if connecting a sufficiently sophisticated introspective system to it the right way would lead to consciousness illusions, and this interpretation would plausibly attribute consciousness more widely, possibly quite widely (Blackmore, 2016 (available submitted draft), Frankish, 2020, Frankish, 2021, Frankish, 2023, Graziano, 2021, Dung, 2022).
If I recall correctly, Eliezer seemed to give substantial weight to relatively sophisticated self- and other-modelling, like cognitive empathy and passing the mirror test. Few animals seem to pass the mirror test, so that would be reason for skepticism.
However, maybe they’re just not smart enough to infer that the reflection is theirs, or they don’t rely enough on sight. Or, they may recognize themselves in other ways or to at least limited degrees. Dogs can remember what actions they’ve spontaneously taken (Fugazza et al., 2020) and recognize their own bodies as obstacles (Lenkei, 2021), and grey wolves show signs of self-recognition via a scent mirror test (Cazzolla Gatti et al., 2021, layman summary in Mates, 2021). Pigeons can discriminate themselves from conspecifics with mirrors, even if they don’t recognize the reflections as themselves (Wittek et al., 2021, Toda and Watanabe, 2008). Mice are subject to the rubber tail illusion and so probably have a sense of body ownership (Wada et al., 2016).
Furthermore, Carey and Fry (1995) show that pigs generalize the discrimination between non-anxiety states and drug-induced anxiety to non-anxiety and anxiety in general, in this case by pressing one lever repeatedly with anxiety, and alternating between two levers without anxiety (the levers gave food rewards, but only if they pressed them according to the condition). Similar experiments were performed on rodents, as discussed in Sánchez-Suárez, 2016, in section 4.d., starting on p.81. Rats generalized from hangover to morphine withdrawal and jetlag, and from high doses of cocaine to movement restriction, from an anxiety-inducing drug to aggressive defeat and predator cues. Of course, anxiety has physical symptoms, so maybe this is what they’re discriminating, not the negative affect.
My understanding from Eliezer’s writing is that he’s an illusionist (and/or a higher-order theorist) about consciousness. However, illusionism (and higher-order theories) are compatible with mammals and birds, at least, being conscious. It depends on the specifics.
I’m also an illusionist about consciousness and very sympathetic to the idea that some kinds of higher-order processes are required, but I do think mammals and birds, at least, are very probably conscious, and subject to consciousness illusions. My understanding is that Humphrey (Humphrey, 2022, Humphrey, 2023a, Humphrey, 2023b, Humphrey, 2017, Romeo, 2023, Humphrey, 2006, Humphrey, 2011) and Muehlhauser (2017) (a report for Open Phil, but representing his own views) would say the same. Furthermore, I think the standard interpretation of illusionism doesn’t require consciousness illusions or higher-order processes in conscious subjects at all, and instead a system is conscious if connecting a sufficiently sophisticated introspective system to it the right way would lead to consciousness illusions, and this interpretation would plausibly attribute consciousness more widely, possibly quite widely (Blackmore, 2016 (available submitted draft), Frankish, 2020, Frankish, 2021, Frankish, 2023, Graziano, 2021, Dung, 2022).
If I recall correctly, Eliezer seemed to give substantial weight to relatively sophisticated self- and other-modelling, like cognitive empathy and passing the mirror test. Few animals seem to pass the mirror test, so that would be reason for skepticism.
However, maybe they’re just not smart enough to infer that the reflection is theirs, or they don’t rely enough on sight. Or, they may recognize themselves in other ways or to at least limited degrees. Dogs can remember what actions they’ve spontaneously taken (Fugazza et al., 2020) and recognize their own bodies as obstacles (Lenkei, 2021), and grey wolves show signs of self-recognition via a scent mirror test (Cazzolla Gatti et al., 2021, layman summary in Mates, 2021). Pigeons can discriminate themselves from conspecifics with mirrors, even if they don’t recognize the reflections as themselves (Wittek et al., 2021, Toda and Watanabe, 2008). Mice are subject to the rubber tail illusion and so probably have a sense of body ownership (Wada et al., 2016).
Furthermore, Carey and Fry (1995) show that pigs generalize the discrimination between non-anxiety states and drug-induced anxiety to non-anxiety and anxiety in general, in this case by pressing one lever repeatedly with anxiety, and alternating between two levers without anxiety (the levers gave food rewards, but only if they pressed them according to the condition). Similar experiments were performed on rodents, as discussed in Sánchez-Suárez, 2016, in section 4.d., starting on p.81. Rats generalized from hangover to morphine withdrawal and jetlag, and from high doses of cocaine to movement restriction, from an anxiety-inducing drug to aggressive defeat and predator cues. Of course, anxiety has physical symptoms, so maybe this is what they’re discriminating, not the negative affect.
There are also of course many non-illusionist theories of consciousness that attribute consciousness more widely that are defended (although I’m personally not sympathetic, unless they’re illusionist-compatible), and theory-neutral or theory-light approaches. On theory-neutral and theory-light approaches, see Low, 2012, Sneddon et al., 2014, Le Neindre et al., 2016, Rethink Priorities, 2019, Birch, 2020, Birch et al., 2022, Mason and Lavery, 2022, generally giving more weight to the more recent work.