LOL... you're a good troll. Here's a game for you: please precisely define the distinction between sensory processes and cognitive processes, and how exactly DS sufferers lack the latter. Or were you just some armchair bullshitter?

Fair warning, if you really want to have this debate, I'm probably out of your league.

>> ^gorillaman:

>> ^dag:
I believe sentience is a gray scale that extends well into the animal kingdom.
You can judge the character of a person by how they treat those that are weaker and less capable.

I think there's an argument to be made for one or more 'sentience thresholds' where the sum of an advanced intellect's understanding of the world, sense of itself, and capacity for abstract thought places it in a very different sphere of mentality to even slightly less able minds.
It's obvious that there's a distinction between non-thinking objects and any thinking creature at all, which would be the first threshold; I claim that humanity, or perhaps only the best of humanity, has cracked another.
It's a fact that compared to humans, animal brains are disproportionately devoted to sensory processing, etc. rather than cognition; which places us orders of magnitude ahead of them in our particular province, even with brains of apparently similar complexity. So there's a real gap there, rather than a smooth progression.
We have animal brains with a little extra cognitive grey matter stapled on top. That little bit seems to make all the difference. It's exciting to think where we'll be when we're able to create a lot more cognition, either biologically or electronically.
Now all of this may not have direct implications for damaged human brains, but it informs our understanding of intelligence generally.
I feel that the error being made by say, vegetarians who claim that 'an animal has just as much right to exist as a person', and similarly sincere but misguided retard-guardians is that they fail to account for these extremely important distinctions.

Comment hidden because you are ignoring dag. (show it anyway)

Do you claim that there is a quantitative value of sentience? Are 100 chickens worth the life of a single human? Your rational argument breaks down into absurdity when followed to its ends. Better to err on the side of compassion and kindness towards living creatures where possible.
>> ^gorillaman:

>> ^dag:
I believe sentience is a gray scale that extends well into the animal kingdom.
You can judge the character of a person by how they treat those that are weaker and less capable.

I think there's an argument to be made for one or more 'sentience thresholds' where the sum of an advanced intellect's understanding of the world, sense of itself, and capacity for abstract thought places it in a very different sphere of mentality to even slightly less able minds.
It's obvious that there's a distinction between non-thinking objects and any thinking creature at all, which would be the first threshold; I claim that humanity, or perhaps only the best of humanity, has cracked another.
It's a fact that compared to humans, animal brains are disproportionately devoted to sensory processing, etc. rather than cognition; which places us orders of magnitude ahead of them in our particular province, even with brains of apparently similar complexity. So there's a real gap there, rather than a smooth progression.
We have animal brains with a little extra cognitive grey matter stapled on top. That little bit seems to make all the difference. It's exciting to think where we'll be when we're able to create a lot more cognition, either biologically or electronically.
Now all of this may not have direct implications for damaged human brains, but it informs our understanding of intelligence generally.
I feel that the error being made by say, vegetarians who claim that 'an animal has just as much right to exist as a person', and similarly sincere but misguided retard-guardians is that they fail to account for these extremely important distinctions.

>> ^dag:

I believe sentience is a gray scale that extends well into the animal kingdom.
You can judge the character of a person by how they treat those that are weaker and less capable.


I think there's an argument to be made for one or more 'sentience thresholds' where the sum of an advanced intellect's understanding of the world, sense of itself, and capacity for abstract thought places it in a very different sphere of mentality to even slightly less able minds.

It's obvious that there's a distinction between non-thinking objects and any thinking creature at all, which would be the first threshold; I claim that humanity, or perhaps only the best of humanity, has cracked another.

It's a fact that compared to humans, animal brains are disproportionately devoted to sensory processing, etc. rather than cognition; which places us orders of magnitude ahead of them in our particular province, even with brains of apparently similar complexity. So there's a real gap there, rather than a smooth progression.

We have animal brains with a little extra cognitive grey matter stapled on top. That little bit seems to make all the difference. It's exciting to think where we'll be when we're able to create a lot more cognition, either biologically or electronically.

Now all of this may not have direct implications for damaged human brains, but it informs our understanding of intelligence generally.

I feel that the error being made by say, vegetarians who claim that 'an animal has just as much right to exist as a person', and similarly sincere but misguided retard-guardians is that they fail to account for these extremely important distinctions.

Comment hidden because you are ignoring dag. (show it anyway)

I believe sentience is a gray scale that extends well into the animal kingdom.

You can judge the character of a person by how they treat those that are weaker and less capable.

Thanks for your help man. Worked like a charm. It's always pathetic when people pull copyright on a parody, and it's great to have a copy in case they find this one too.

In reply to this comment by brycewi19:
In reply to this comment by Canjul:
Hey man, just contacting you about the video "Swaim: The 4 Best Worst Demo Reels on YouTube". I love Cracked TV and Does Not Compute (not to mention the rest of the site), and I'm really glad you saved this episode from whoever tried to have it taken down. I just wanted to know if there was any way I could download the video in case it's ever taken down from here as well.

Thanks in advance for any help you can provide.

If I were you, I would just download Real Player. It is bundled with a neat little program that downloads any flash video. For instance, every time a flash video is presented on a website there will be a little gray box in the upper left corner that simply says "Download Now". And it will record it and place it in a file folder of your choosing.

Give it a shot. It's great for videos that you want to save for posterity.

In reply to this comment by Canjul:
Hey man, just contacting you about the video "Swaim: The 4 Best Worst Demo Reels on YouTube". I love Cracked TV and Does Not Compute (not to mention the rest of the site), and I'm really glad you saved this episode from whoever tried to have it taken down. I just wanted to know if there was any way I could download the video in case it's ever taken down from here as well.

Thanks in advance for any help you can provide.

If I were you, I would just download Real Player. It is bundled with a neat little program that downloads any flash video. For instance, every time a flash video is presented on a website there will be a little gray box in the upper left corner that simply says "Download Now". And it will record it and place it in a file folder of your choosing.

Give it a shot. It's great for videos that you want to save for posterity.

What if the video makes a bunch of positive female scientist role models advertise their involvement in science? >> ^hpqp:

@Sagemind
Dr Meghan Gray answers to that in this video (starts 5:39).

Thanks - That was a great interview.
I can see what they were trying to do and I can see what they ended up doing.



This (Whole thing) is a great study on advertising, human condition, public reaction and so on - I think they have learned something here. That in itself is a good thing. And it has gained some attention for the Youtube channel. Lets hope they can prosper from this.

Original video: http://videosift.com/video/How-NOT-to-Promote-Science-to-Women

YouTube Channel (which has pulled the video, but still has all the supporting videos.
http://www.youtube.com/user/sciencegirlthing

>> ^hpqp:

@Sagemind
Dr Meghan Gray answers to that in this video (starts 5:39).

Thanks - That was a great interview.
I can see what they were trying to do and I can see what they ended up doing.



This (Whole thing) is a great study on advertising, human condition, public reaction and so on - I think they have learned something here. That in itself is a good thing. And it has gained some attention for the Youtube channel. Lets hope they can prosper from this.

http://www.youtube.com/user/sciencegirlthing

>> ^hpqp:

@Sagemind
Dr Meghan Gray answers to that in this video (starts 5:39).

@Sagemind

Dr Meghan Gray answers to that in this video (starts 5:39).

Wow DeMint was really laying it on thick. I think he's got a gray short and curly stuck in his teeth.

It's unclear if the pictures are taken out of pride or as evidence.

I've seen most of these before. Mr. Cool Ice always makes me LOL, as well as the terrible black/gray tats of photos (although the Tay Zonday was pretty good, imho).

I installed the addon and used it for a little while now. There are no pink dots yet and only one gray dot. I have Ghostery and BetterPrivacy installed. Ghostery blocks the trackers, and BetterPrivacy deletes any tracking cookies that managed to sneak through when I close Firefox.

Catching the wasp video won't load for me [sigh]. It's weird because I can see the thumbnail but when I click on it [or even on the title of the video] the video doesn't load. I can't mark it blocked because the option is grayed out. This really bums me out because I really like most of what you post. I wish I knew what is causing this ... did you edit the video?

Have a wonderful week,
cheRi