My impression is that experts are divided as to whether or not insects have phenomenal consciousness. Some people seem to have strong intuitions one way, and others have strong intuitions the other way. Ultimately I don’t think we know enough about the subject for anyone to be too confident one way or the other, and given this uncertainty we should take precautions.
I didn’t think it was worth getting into the question how likely it is that insects are conscious because it’s something that I’ve written about extensively elsewhere (mostly in a forthcoming report). And there are other posts on the question. In hindsight maybe a paragraph on it would have been good.
My impression is that experts are divided as to whether or not insects have phenomenal consciousness. Some people seem to have strong intuitions one way, and others have strong intuitions the other way. Ultimately I don’t think we know enough about the subject for anyone to be too confident one way or the other, and given this uncertainty we should take precautions.
I didn’t think it was worth getting into the question how likely it is that insects are conscious because it’s something that I’ve written about extensively elsewhere (mostly in a forthcoming report). And there are other posts on the question. In hindsight maybe a paragraph on it would have been good.