Companion
Copyright© 2014 by MisguidedChild
Foreword
Ruminating on life, evolution, sentience, and intelligence can be interesting as well as mind boggling. Mankind has defined the conditions required for life to exist, and is continually updating that definition as we discover how persistent life actually is. Sentience, however, is a whole different issue.
Sentience is defined as the ability to feel, perceive, or experience subjectively. If anyone wants to get really confused, look up the word subjectively. Anyway, most of us simplify the meaning of sentience to be a condition of being self-aware. Isn't humans trying to define sentience, kind of like an artist painting a self-portrait without ever seeing a reflection of their face? If the presence of ego is needed for sentience, then humans certainly qualify.
How will we determine sentience when we meet life-forms that have evolved on other worlds? And, how does sentience evolve? Is attaining sentience the condition that biological organizations, like humanity, strive for, or is it simply a rest stop on the road of evolution?
Let's change direction. Does anyone question that there is life on other planets? I don't know of anyone that does. The only real question is, how has life evolved on other planets? The big question is, has any of that life evolved into sentience? We can guess at the evolution of other life, but sentience isn't really related to how life evolves.