<div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif"><span style="font-family:Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif">On Sat, Apr 4, 2026 at 7:44 AM Ben Zaiboc <<a href="mailto:benzaiboc@proton.me">benzaiboc@proton.me</a>> wrote:</span></div></div><div class="gmail_quote gmail_quote_container"><div dir="ltr" class="gmail_attr"><br></div></div><blockquote style="margin:0px 0px 0px 0.8ex;border-left:1px solid rgb(204,204,204);padding-left:1ex" class="gmail_quote"><div class="gmail_quote gmail_quote_container"><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0px 0px 0px 0.8ex;border-left:1px solid rgb(204,204,204);padding-left:1ex"><div style="font-family:Arial,sans-serif;font-size:14px"><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0px 0px 0px 0.8ex;border-left:1px solid rgb(204,204,204);padding-left:1ex"><i style="font-family:georgia,serif;font-size:large"><span class="gmail_default" style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif">>>> </span>We should be extremely careful when looking at what dolphins do. The tendency to anthropomorphise is almost irresistible.</i></blockquote></div></blockquote></div><div class="gmail_quote gmail_quote_container"><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0px 0px 0px 0.8ex;border-left:1px solid rgb(204,204,204);padding-left:1ex"> </blockquote></div></blockquote><div class="gmail_quote gmail_quote_container"><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0px 0px 0px 0.8ex;border-left:1px solid rgb(204,204,204);padding-left:1ex"><div style="font-family:Arial,sans-serif;font-size:14px"><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0px 0px 0px 0.8ex;border-left:1px solid rgb(204,204,204);padding-left:1ex"><b style="font-family:tahoma,sans-serif;font-size:large"><span class="gmail_default" style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif">>> </span>Is that always a bad thing, isn't anthropomorphism exactly what we're doing when we reject solipsism and ascribe consciousness to our fellow human beings?</b></blockquote></div></blockquote><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0px 0px 0px 0.8ex;border-left:1px solid rgb(204,204,204);padding-left:1ex"> </blockquote><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0px 0px 0px 0.8ex;border-left:1px solid rgb(204,204,204);padding-left:1ex"><i style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-size:15pt"><font face="georgia, serif"><span class="gmail_default" style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif">> </span>Not at all.<span class="gmail_default"> </span>Anthropomorphism is the tendency to ascribe human characteristics to non-human things.</font></i></blockquote><div><br></div><div><font size="4" face="tahoma, sans-serif"><b>I know, but how do you distinguish between characteristics that are the result of being human and characteristics that are the result of being conscious?<span class="gmail_default" style=""> </span> </b></font></div><div><br></div><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0px 0px 0px 0.8ex;border-left:1px solid rgb(204,204,204);padding-left:1ex"><div style="font-size:14px"><div style=""><div class="gmail_quote" style=""><span style="font-size:15pt;line-height:normal;color:rgb(0,0,0);background-color:rgb(255,255,255)"><i style=""><font face="georgia, serif"><span class="gmail_default" style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif">> </span>Things that we already know aren't human, like dolphins.<br></font></i></span></div></div></div></blockquote><div><br></div><div><font size="4" face="tahoma, sans-serif"><b>What's with this <span class="gmail_default" style="">"</span>we<span class="gmail_default" style="">"</span> business<span class="gmail_default" style="">? </span> I know with absolute certainty that I am conscious but I am less certain about you because<span class="gmail_default" style=""> </span><span class="gmail_default" style="">I can directly experience my own consciousness but when it comes to you or any of my fellow human beings all I can do is observe their actions and make an important assumption; consciousness is the inevitable result of intelligent data processing. That's the only reason I believe other people are conscious, except when they're sleeping or under anesthesia or dead because when they are in any of those conditions they are not processing data very intelligently. </span></b></font></div><div><br></div><div><font size="4" face="tahoma, sans-serif"><b><span class="gmail_default" style=""> John K Clark</span></b></font></div><div><br></div><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0px 0px 0px 0.8ex;border-left:1px solid rgb(204,204,204);padding-left:1ex"><div style="font-family:Arial,sans-serif;font-size:14px"><div><div class="gmail_quote"><br><font face="tahoma, sans-serif" size="4"><b><span class="gmail_default"></span></b></font></div>
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