Jake Posted December 16, 2017 Important If True 41: A Very Happy Cow There are certain pieces of knowledge, things one has observed or learned, that become like a single grain of sand in the folds of the brain. An itch you can't scratch, can't make go away. Something you know to be true but no one else sees, or the tiniest word out of place, a colloquial phrase misused by a friend. For you and your itchy brain, we are here. Rub your face up against this podcast and we'll grind those grains of mental sand away (while only adding a few new ones in the process).Discussed: Canadian politeness, Nick Breckon, sincerity, phenomena, pedanticism, sentience and sapience, TN.FN.CN, the smartest animal, less vs. fewer, encouraging grocery store express line improvements, removing the sand from my brain, Jibo the friendly robot, Jibo's obsessive desire for your love, Jibo's political agenda, sapience vs. sentience vs. love vs. robot love, cat pillow that purrs, Qoobo, dangerous capitalistic self-medication, Happy Cow bovine self-grooming device, electric automatic shoe polisher machine, extraordinarily dubious menswear advice, Important If True Bad Gift SpecialChris' Endorsement: Indochino made-to-measure menswear (you can also use my referral link for $50 off, if you desire)Nick's Endorsement: Nintendo Switch video game consoleJake's Endorsement: Red Giant Universe gratuitous effects to make your videos look like old VHS tapes and stuff Listen on the Episode Page Listen on Soundcloud Listen in iTunes Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
TychoCelchuuu Posted December 17, 2017 Chris is right to quail a bit at the claim that smartphones are sentient. This is a very controversial topic - there are plenty of philosophers who argue that smartphones and other machines are not at all sentient, including some philosophers who think no machine could ever be sentient. The reader is also overstating the idea that there is a clear-cut distinction between sentience and sapience. Sapience, unlike sentience, is not a particularly well-regimented academic term. Philosophers tend to refer to what the reader talks about as sapience by instead using the term "personhood" - an animal with a degree of self-understanding akin to ours is a "person." Some argue that some non-human animals, like dolphins or octopuses, are persons. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
SuperBiasedMan Posted December 17, 2017 It is also strange to claim that phones are sentient but not sapient and that's why they don't have rights, considering non sapient animals do have rights. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
TychoCelchuuu Posted December 17, 2017 Oh right, I should have mentioned that too. Yeah, in general philosophers argue that there are some rights that only persons should have, like for instance a right to vote or whatever, but there's plenty of disagreement about whether only persons have rights. Plenty of philosophers think non-persons, like dogs and babies, have some rights, like the right not to be tortured for no good reason or the right to get a really dope scratching machine installed in the barn. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Salacious Snake Posted December 18, 2017 Check out this GLaDOS type shit: The conversation about "friendly" home robots reminded me of it. The brushless motor-driven camera gimbal-style body actually seems like a cool idea; you can confer a jaunty attitude to an otherwise alien-looking device with the right kind of motion. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
DocRandal Posted December 18, 2017 The discussion of sapience make me ask the question: Are humans capable of recognizing sapience greater than their own? What qualities would define "greater sapience"? Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
SecretAsianMan Posted December 20, 2017 Jake mentioning Nick's screen briefly glitching out immediately conjured an image of Max Headroom but with Nick instead. There's got to be a plugin for that. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
plasticflesh Posted December 20, 2017 On 12/20/2017 at 2:22 AM, SecretAsianMan said: Jake mentioning Nick's screen briefly glitching out immediately conjured an image of Max Headroom but with Nick instead. There's got to be a plugin for that. Max Headroom style background line matrixes could probably be generated by Trapcode Mir or Form, but unfortunately those don't look to be part of the Universe suite On 12/17/2017 at 1:11 AM, TychoCelchuuu said: Chris is right to quail a bit at the claim that smartphones are sentient. On 12/17/2017 at 2:45 PM, TychoCelchuuu said: Oh rPlenty of philosophers think non-persons, like dogs and babies, have some rights What rights are quails entitled to? Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
SecretAsianMan Posted December 20, 2017 I showed TN.FN.CN to my wife, who is a native Chinese speaker. It pretty much says what Chris/Google Translate thinks it does. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Ben X Posted January 2, 2018 To further pedantricise the pedant, they claimed that saying humans are the only sapient species in the universe is tautological because the word sapient comes from the term homo sapiens. This is incorrect; they both come from the same root, one does not come directly from the other. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites