• radiant_bloom@lemm.ee
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      3
      ·
      8 months ago

      Then I guess I do have a question : To your knowledge, how many sapient beings currently exist ?

      • beefbot@lemmy.blahaj.zone
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        6
        ·
        8 months ago

        A researcher in animal cognition said at a lecture I saw once: every time we look closer, we see more and more evidence of intelligent behavior in tinier and tinier creatures, behaviors we once assumed were limited to humans. He studied insects: bacteria have been shown to display “learning” behaviors.

        How many beings are sapient? Wouldn’t be shocked if Future Being told me it was all of them

        • radiant_bloom@lemm.ee
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          2
          ·
          8 months ago

          I hope the being from the future answers with a number, because “all of them” could mean “one” and that’s the actual thing I’m worried about 😆

      • CopernicusQwark@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        1
        ·
        8 months ago

        To my knowledge, the sapient population is the human population of Earth.

        However, there are numerous sentient species that could conceivably be “uplifted” in the next thousand years. Plus, I consider it more likely than not that extraterrestrials do exist and that there’s likely another sapient species out there, though they are unlikely to be in our general volume of space