Birch emphasizes the urgency of recognizing sentience in various living beings, stating, "If you aren't yet worried about the multitude of ways you inadvertently inflict suffering onto other living creatures, you will be after reading The Edge of Sentience." This highlights the necessary shift in our ethical considerations towards a wider array of beings we may cause suffering to.
In discussing the concept of sentience, Birch clarifies, "Even insects may possess sentience, which he defines as the capacity to have valenced experiences, or experiences that feel good or bad." This reframes our understanding of sentience beyond mammals to include even the smallest life forms.
Birch explains the implications of his findings, mentioning the legal protections in place: "A framework for fence-sitters includes non-human animals and entities like neural organoids or AI, which force us to confront our responsibilities towards them." This signals a societal need to reevaluate moral responsibility.
The historical context of the recognition of invertebrate sentience is captured in Birch's note, "In fact, one species of octopus, Octopus vulgaris, has been protected by the UK's Animal Scientific Procedures Act (ASPA) since 1986, which illustrates how long we have been aware of the possibility that invertebrates might be capable of experiencing valenced states..."
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