Sentience

slug: sentience element_type: TERM mutability: MUTABLE inline: false current_version: 1 contentURI: https://github.com/leviathan-protocol/animal-welfare/blob/main/constitution/30-shared-terms/sentience.md

The capacity to have subjective experiences and to feel valenced states such as pain, pleasure, or emotion. Sentience assessment is evidence-based across neurological, behavioral, and physiological indicators, with confidence levels HIGH/MEDIUM/LOW/UNKNOWN. UNKNOWN triggers the precautionary principle: protection is the default.

Why inline: false

The full sentience definition is too long for inline on-chain storage (>500 chars when including indicator categories, confidence levels, and source references). Content lives at contentURI in the animal-welfare repo; the on-chain Registry stores the hash for integrity verification.

What this term defines

The operational criterion for moral patiency in Animal Welfare. Sentience is not assumed by species (humans yes, others no); it's evaluated by evidence. The evidence framework here is what makes Animal Welfare governance actionable.

Indicator categories

Neurological

• Nociceptors (pain receptors)
• Opioid receptors (suggesting pain modulation capacity)
• Central nervous system integration
• Brain structures associated with emotion (limbic system, equivalents)

Behavioral

• Pain avoidance learning
• Protective behavior when injured
• Trade-off decisions (accepting cost to avoid pain)
• Play behavior (typically requires safety from immediate threat)
• Tool use, problem solving (cognitive sophistication)

Physiological

• Stress hormone response (cortisol, corticosterone)
• Emotional fever (stress-induced hyperthermia)
• Wound guarding
• Appetite suppression under stress

Confidence levels

Source

Operationalized from the Cambridge Declaration on Consciousness (2012) and subsequent welfare science. The framework evolves as research advances; updates flow through MUTABLE governance vote.

Why mutable

Sentience science is active research. Indicators get refined (e.g., emotional fever as a Tier B+ behavioral marker added recently), new species join the evidence frontier (octopus sentience legally recognized in some jurisdictions), measurement methods improve. The CONCEPT of sentience-as-moral-patiency-criterion is stable (per sentience_axiom IMMUTABLE); the EVIDENCE FRAMEWORK is current best understanding.

Inspired by dahao-animal-welfare-test-1/data/terms.json::@sentience (v1.0.1).

Related elements

• sentience_axiom (IMMUTABLE) — moral patiency principle
• precautionary_principle (IMMUTABLE) — what to do under UNKNOWN confidence
• nociception (TERM, future) — specific mechanism component
• suffering (TERM) — distinct but related concept