Luke Muehlhauser of the Open Philanthropy Project recently published a major report on animal consciousness and the question of "moral patienthood" — i.e. which beings merit moral concern? The purpose of the report is to inform Open Phil's grantmaking, especially in its farm animal welfare focus area. Luke would like to hear your questions and objections, and he will host an "Ask Me Anything" session on the issues discussed in the report, here on the Effective Altruism Forum, starting at 9am Pacific on Wednesday, June 28th.
I hope you will read the report and then join in with lots of questions about the topics it covers: consciousness, moral patienthood, animal cognition, meta-ethics, moral weight, illusionism, hidden qualia, and more!
Luke would also like to note that much of the most interesting content in the report is in the appendices and even some footnotes, e.g. on unconscious vision, on what a more satisfying theory of consciousness might look like, and an explanation of attention schema theory (footnote 288).
(In case it's confusing why I'm posting this: I'm coming on as a moderator of the Forum, and will post shortly with more info about that.)
Has anyone ever suggested that astrocytes may be necessary for, or at least a strong indicator of, phenomenal consciousness? If so, could you point me to the claim?
I don't think we don't know yet!
But here is Ben Barres' related NIH Grant: "An Astrocytic Basis for Humanity"
https://projectreporter.nih.gov/project_info_description.cfm?aid=9068256&icde=34843317&ddparam=&ddvalue=&ddsub=&cr=2&csb=default&cs=ASC&pball=
Sadly, Prof. Barres, one the most respected neuroscientists in the country, has terminal cancer.
I don't know what will happen to this grant. Stanford's astrocyte research is at risk if they lose funding. However, there are plenty of people at Stanford now who would c... (read more)