ONLINE MEETUP: Does Humanism need an upgrade? Is Sentientism the answer?

Sentientism is an ethical philosophy that applies evidence and reason and extends moral consideration to all sentient beings. Sentient beings have the ability to experience things – suffering or flourishing. That includes humans, non-human animals and potentially even artificial or alien intelligences.

Most humanists care about non-human animals and we can stretch the humanist concept easily to sentient AIs. Humanists UK references sentient non-human animals in its definition of humanism. Because Humanists already extend our concern to non-human subjects, Sentientism might be regarded as a confusing concept that is redundant and will only serve to damage an important progressive movement.

While many humanists do extend their circles of concern widely, some sentientists believe the term humanism implies and encourages a focus on one species and gives humanists excuses for cognitive dissonance and akrasia (acting in a way contrary to one's sincerely held moral values).

Led by the prominent Sentientist, Jamie Woodhouse, in this Online Meetup we will examine the following questions:

• Humanism only considers humans as moral agents or subjects, are other sentients also moral subjects?

• Does morality, even in rudimentary forms, exist in non-humans?

• Do humanists accept that non-human artificial or alien intelligences may eventually warrant moral consideration.

In the view of some Sentientists, humanism needs an upgrade, what say you?

This will be a talk followed by a Q&A. A link to the Zoom conference will be sent out at 3pm, but please do not click it to log in until about 10 minutes to 4pm. Zoom works best on the Chrome browser download and install here: https://www.google.com/chrome/

For more information on Sentientism:

https://sentientism.info/is-humanism-good-enough