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Comment by sillysaurus3 | Hacker News Reader

Are insects conscious? Why or why not?

It's impossible to be sure, but since it seems consciousness follows a spectrum when it comes to living beings, with more complex beings having "more" consciousness and less complex beings having less, my guess is that all living things have some form of consciousness, including plants and insects.

As soon as anything "prefers" any stimulus over another, I think consciousness becomes an emergent property.

Allow my crappy analogy, it takes some space to store debugging symbols and insects are not compiled with -g.

Your stomach prefers some stimulus over another, would you say your guts are conscious? What about other organs like the heart (beating fast, beating slow)?

The gut is often called "the second brain" because the 500 million gut neurons that form the enteric nervous system are capable of autonomous function.[1]

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enteric_nervous_system

Does this spectrum imply that humans have varying levels of consciousness? If so, I think this presents an interesting moral question.

I'd certainly say there is a spectrum of varying human consciousness from fetus>baby>young child>child

I would say so on a more minute to minute basis. Awake, asleep, drunk, daydreaming, hypnosis......

Does it vary within each category?

Lets say it does. Perhaps a brain damaged person in a coma has less consciousness. Or perhaps someone who is just asleep has less consciousness. Whats your interesting moral question?

I seem to have forgotten

Not only that but you (or I) have varying levels of consciousness minute to minute. We conflate many different states of mind and call them all 'conscious' whereas they differ massively.

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