I don’t think the case for Vasco’s argument depends really on sentience in non-arthropods. There are like a billion soil arthropods for every person, so funding research on soil animals looks similarly important. And a lot of these are ants who are more likely to be sentient than black soldier flies.
I do find the comment “I also want robustness in the case for sentience,” a bit puzzling in context. As I understood it, Vasco’s argument was that it’s not very unlikely that animals even simpler than arthropods are sentient (mites, springtails, etc). That there’s not a robust case that they are analogous isn’t a strong argument for them not being analogous (and will, in fact, be a reason for uncertainty and research).
Broadly agree with a lot of the document though, especially the funding stuff! I think funding Arthropoda is great!
I don’t think the case for Vasco’s argument depends really on sentience in non-arthropods. There are like a billion soil arthropods for every person, so funding research on soil animals looks similarly important. And a lot of these are ants who are more likely to be sentient than black soldier flies.
I do find the comment “I also want robustness in the case for sentience,” a bit puzzling in context. As I understood it, Vasco’s argument was that it’s not very unlikely that animals even simpler than arthropods are sentient (mites, springtails, etc). That there’s not a robust case that they are analogous isn’t a strong argument for them not being analogous (and will, in fact, be a reason for uncertainty and research).
Broadly agree with a lot of the document though, especially the funding stuff! I think funding Arthropoda is great!