Are you astronomically certain that insects aren’t conscious at all, or just not intensely conscious?
I refuse to demand astronomical certainty here, because that amounts to Pascal’s Mugging.
I don’t even have astronomical certainty that electrons aren’t conscious. Yet I wouldn’t say “there’s a 10^-20 chance that electrons are conscious, so based on the huge number of electrons that still adds up to a lot of suffering and batteries are murder.”
Right so you can discount extremely low probabilities. But presumably the odds of insects being conscious—a view believed by a large number of experts—isn’t low enough to fully discount.
Astronomical certainty, that’s another way of saying “even if the odds are really really low”. If you don’t actually think the odds are really really low, the astronomical certainty is irrelevant.
I refuse to demand astronomical certainty here, because that amounts to Pascal’s Mugging.
I don’t even have astronomical certainty that electrons aren’t conscious. Yet I wouldn’t say “there’s a 10^-20 chance that electrons are conscious, so based on the huge number of electrons that still adds up to a lot of suffering and batteries are murder.”
Right so you can discount extremely low probabilities. But presumably the odds of insects being conscious—a view believed by a large number of experts—isn’t low enough to fully discount.
Astronomical certainty, that’s another way of saying “even if the odds are really really low”. If you don’t actually think the odds are really really low, the astronomical certainty is irrelevant.