On factors of potential relevance to moral weight, including some that could intuitively upweight many invertebrates, see also my Preliminary thoughts on moral weight.
I would be cautious about using clock-speed to as a multiplier for consciousness experience, particularly for small flying animals. Insect flight is dynamically unstable (hovering hummingbirds probably are to), and their flight control systems respond on the order of one to a few wingbeat cycles, which does give them their appearance of very fast responses. But the speed of consciousness relevant cognitive processing is probably slower; for instance, bumblebee flower discrimination can take 10+ seconds.
That said, I do intuitively expect small mammals (like rats) with faster heart beats and shorter life spans to have a faster subjective experience that larger mammals, so I’d expect the same to be true for insects to some extent. I’d just avoid assuming that the fastest neural processing an animal is capable of (probably related to sensorimotor control of body stabilization) applies to all of its cognitive process.
On factors of potential relevance to moral weight, including some that could intuitively upweight many invertebrates, see also my Preliminary thoughts on moral weight.
I would be cautious about using clock-speed to as a multiplier for consciousness experience, particularly for small flying animals. Insect flight is dynamically unstable (hovering hummingbirds probably are to), and their flight control systems respond on the order of one to a few wingbeat cycles, which does give them their appearance of very fast responses. But the speed of consciousness relevant cognitive processing is probably slower; for instance, bumblebee flower discrimination can take 10+ seconds.
That said, I do intuitively expect small mammals (like rats) with faster heart beats and shorter life spans to have a faster subjective experience that larger mammals, so I’d expect the same to be true for insects to some extent. I’d just avoid assuming that the fastest neural processing an animal is capable of (probably related to sensorimotor control of body stabilization) applies to all of its cognitive process.