Given that i’m lying in bed with my iPhone commenting on this post, I’d say ray did ok.
His extrapolations of computer hardware seem to be pretty good.
His extrapolations of computer software are far too optimistic. He clearly made the mistake of vastly underestimating how much work our brains do when we translate natural language or turn speech into text.
I think we’re all out of our depth here. For example, do we have an agreed upon, precise definition of the word “sentient”? I don’t think so.
I think that for now it is probably better to try to develop a rigorous understanding of concepts like consciousness, sentience, personhood and the reflective equilibrium of humanity than to speculate on how we should add further constraints to our task.
Nonsentience might be one of those intuitive concepts that falls to pieces upon closer examinations. Finding “nonperson predicates” might be like looking for “nonfairy predicates”.