the word “sapient” doesn’t have a clear or agreed upon meaning, so plenty of people would say that babies are sentient
Human babies and cats are sentient but not sapient. Human children and adults, if not severely mentally disabled, are both sentient and sapient. I think this is the standard usage. A common misusage of “sentient” is to use it in the sense of sapient, saying “lizard people are sentient”, while meaning “lizard people are sapient” (they are sentient as well, but saying that they are sapient is an additional claim with a different meaning, for which it’s better to have a different word).
Sapients are AGI-level sentients, with some buffer for less functional variants (like children). Sapients are centrally people, framed from a more functional standpoint. Some hypothetical AGIs might be functionally sapient without being sentient, able to optimize the world without being people themselves. I think AGI-level LLM characters are not like that.
uploading animals
Uplifting, not uploading. Uploading preserves behavior, uplifting changes behavior by improving intelligence or knowledge, while preserving identity/memory/personality. Uplifting doesn’t imply leaving the biological substrate, though doing both seems natural in this context.
Human babies and cats are sentient but not sapient. Human children and adults, if not severely mentally disabled, are both sentient and sapient. I think this is the standard usage. A common misusage of “sentient” is to use it in the sense of sapient, saying “lizard people are sentient”, while meaning “lizard people are sapient” (they are sentient as well, but saying that they are sapient is an additional claim with a different meaning, for which it’s better to have a different word).
Sapients are AGI-level sentients, with some buffer for less functional variants (like children). Sapients are centrally people, framed from a more functional standpoint. Some hypothetical AGIs might be functionally sapient without being sentient, able to optimize the world without being people themselves. I think AGI-level LLM characters are not like that.
Uplifting, not uploading. Uploading preserves behavior, uplifting changes behavior by improving intelligence or knowledge, while preserving identity/memory/personality. Uplifting doesn’t imply leaving the biological substrate, though doing both seems natural in this context.