@ComPalindrome We can identify the same signs of sentience in many plants as in corals. "Unambiguous sentience" is just a weak term, since sentience is famously ambiguous. We're probably pretty sure many animals are sentient, after which you'd have a hard time pinning down what you mean.
@ComPalindrome The black/white of your account is what makes it good, but it's probably a continuous spectrum of sentience from reacting to gravity to reacting to other members of your species to reacting to war and peace.
@ComPalindrome Yeah, the things that are sentient are sentient, and the ones that aren't are not, we just don't know how to tell which is which. It seems we draw on our empathy for things that move relatively fast (animals), and exclude very environment-aware behavior elsewhere.
@ComPalindrome It's easy for me to feel wrong about exploiting bumble bees or ants. It feels strange to feel worried about the feelings of mosquitoes. I'm not sure what I feel about beetles. If "unambiguous sentience" means play, then we'd have to look for that, but it's a bit ambiguous!
@thmsmlr I've never used python professionally so i couldn't say :p
it bothers me a lot more conceptually than it ever has in practice, and in practice it comes up mostly when pasting code iirc, but it's a good enough reason for me to think semantic whitespace is a bad idea