Sure, but only specifically in a sci-fi context. Once you really start getting into philosophy of mind and biology, it gets confusing.
“Sentient” means to be able to perceive, feel, and/or be aware of the surrounding world – to have senses that allow one to experience things. Animals are sentient – they are able to hear, see, smell, taste, and/or touch. Plants are also arguably sentient, albeit in a much slower and more cryptic way than animals – but we don’t generally count them as such for practical purposes (I could… get into this). If you built a robot no more intelligent than, say, a goldfish, but it was able to see or smell or feel pain, it would be sentient, but not sapient.
“Sapient” means human-like wisdom or self-aware intelligence – the ability to engage in complex reasoning and judgement. In sci-fi, it usually denotes personhood and identity. A computer could therefore theoretically be sapient, but not sentient.
Robot stories are almost always about exploring the formation and value of consciousness and personhood. Star Trek is probably in large part to blame for “sentience” to mean “sapience” in loads of media – it’s certainly the reason I used to get it wrong! I lost count of how many times Data refers to himself as “sentient” when he’s describing self-awareness aspects of his personal identity – he even contrasts himself with his cat, claiming she is not sentient (he’s uh… wrong…).
Data is, of course, both sentient and sapient. An android that can walk around and respond to the world around it, using artificial senses that allow it to gather information from its surroundings, is sentient. (Being able to analyze flavor, scent, and temperature counts as sensing – not just seeing and hearing). An android that can reason and form self-awareness is sapient, whether or not it has traditionally human-like emotions. HAL 9000 is obviously sapient, but his sentience is limited.
you have been visited by the seven magic dragon balls your biggest wish will be granted but only if you reblog
Couldn’t risk it.
didn’t realize they change colors. now I know o gotta wish.
THIS SHIT IS REAL I GOT THE JOB I WAS NUTS ABOUT BC I REBLOGGED THIS YESTERDAY maybe it’s a coinkidink but it okay just take the necessary steps to achieve what you’re wishing for and YOU CAN DO IT
Listen, I don’t really believe in this kind of stuff, but I’m down enough today that I’m just going to reblog it
Anyone else getting real fuckin fed up with this guy
to expand on this: as rescue teams were racing to save those kids and their coach, elon musk decided to use the crisis as a PR stunt.
he tweeted about how he was going to send his engineers to Thailand in order to look like a hero. he threw out ludicrous rescue ideas, including a 3 mile long tube and a small submarine, neither of which had a chance in hell of working.
the diver being discussed here is Vern Unsworth. he’s a 63-year-old British caver who lives near and has extensive knowledge of the Tham Luang cave system.
Unsworth is the reason the boys were found: he used his knowledge of the caves and deductive reasoning to pinpoint where he thought the team would be. when rescuers followed his directions, they found the boys only 200 meters away.
Unsworth also called in the British divers who would go on to first locate the team. he didn’t know these boys, but he remained outside of thebTham Luang cave system for the full 17 days in order to assist in their rescue anyway.
he has since rightfully called out Musk for trying to exploit the situation for attention and explained why Musk’s suggestions would never have even worked. Musk responded by throwing a tantrum and, based on literally NOTHING, calling Unsworth a pedophile.
theclumsiestninja 