When is a species considered Sapience?

[ray245]

Well...Humans are always considered saipent. However, where is the difference between 'normal' animals and Sapienceanimals drawn?

Apes can make some primitive tools, while humans beings still hunt before agriculture began.

So what does a species need to accomplise so that they can be labeled as Sapience?

Correct me if I misuse the word Sapience for Sentient.

[Lagmonster]

Well...Humans are always considered saipent. However, where is the difference between 'normal' animals and Sapienceanimals drawn?

Apes can make some primitive tools, while humans beings still hunt before agriculture began.

So what does a species need to accomplise so that they can be labeled as Sapience?

Correct me if I misuse the word Sapience for Sentient.

I think you're leaning towards sapience, not sentience. While not my particular forte, I don't recall hearing of any other strongly sapient animal species, but that there have been individual other Hominidae who are close or even over the line.

[Junghalli]

I think the question of exactly where animal ends and person begins is one scientists and philosophers are going to be arguing over for a long time.

My own take on the matter is that any line we draw is probably going to end up being pretty arbitrary.

[Elaro]

Well, the capacity for long-term thinking would be a start, I think, on the road to sentience. (Like toolmaking: "I am making this tool to use it later in a specific situation.")

Inter-individual communication of theoretical subjects would be another.

Ultimately, I think, the only way to be sure a species has sentience is if we can communicate with it on a competent level.

[Darth Wong]

So what does a species need to accomplise so that they can be labeled as Sapience?

Stop voting Republican.

[Darth Raptor]

"Sentience" and "sapience" are pretty much used interchangably anymore, no matter how inaccurate that may actually be. Anything that's aware of its surroundings through senses higher than pure reflex and chemical/electrical responses is sentient. Like an ant? Sentient. Plants? Non-sentient. Examples of non-sentient animals would be things like sponges. Whether cnidarians and the like are sentient is debatable.

Like pornography, comedy and, indeed, intelligence itself, the definition of sapience is fuzzy. It's one of those "I know it when I see it" things. Self-awareness and communication are pretty widely accepted standards. Some folks consider tool use to be an integral symptom of sapience as well. Some dogs, some apes and most cetaceans could be considered sapient if you apply the word liberally.

And another thing, an animal only stops being an animal when it's completely cyberized. Are you a multicellular heterotroph that moves? Then you're an animal AND a human being. The two qualities are not mutually exclusive. That's a throwback to theistic thinking that considers humanity "special" somehow.

[kinnison]

Working answer; when it can tell you that it is.