Arguments about animal sentience pave the way for arguments about machine sentience.
This recent issue of JCS on animal sentience is a must-read for anyone thinking about artificial consciousness. The very act of thinking about animal sentience takes one down the road of thinking about non-human sentient beings. That must include machines, ie AIs and robots, too. Unless you are a spiritualist, there is no good saying that only living things can be sentient. The various writers in the JCS think deeply about the difficulties and subtleties of considering animal sentience. This is a lot more than most of the folk in legislatures around the world. The latter all too often fall prey to anthropomorphism.
Link to JCS: https://www.imprint.co.uk/product/jcs/
You may also like to browse other philosophy posts: https://www.thesentientrobot.com/category/philosophy/
