Both a dog and a cockroach are in a life or death situation, in which if they aren’t saved they will die, and you can only save one. The dog has typical intelligence for a dog meaning that it’s no more able to know that it will die or contemplate its existence than any other dog. The cockroach has the same intelligence as a typical human so it can contemplate its own existence and knows it will die as much as any human. The cockroach is consciously thinking thoughts like, “I don’t want to die,” “And I’m scared to die.”
You weren’t be harmed if you try to save either and there’s also no reward beyond a feeling of fulfillment for saving either. The dog won’t bite you nor will the cockroach transmit a disease to you for instance.
Which animal do you save?
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Copy of the original post in case of edits: Both a dog and a cockroach are in a life or death situation, in which if they aren’t saved they will die, and you can only save one. The dog has typical intelligence for a dog meaning that it’s no more able to know that it will die or contemplate its existence than any other dog. The cockroach has the same intelligence as a typical human so it can contemplate its own existence and knows it will die as much as any human. The cockroach is consciously thinking thoughts like, “I don’t want to die,” “And I’m scared to die.”
You weren’t be harmed if you try to save either and there’s also no reward beyond a feeling of fulfillment for saving either. The dog won’t bite you nor will the cockroach transmit a disease to you for instance.
Which animal do you save?
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Dog.
Cockroaches don’t live long anyway and I hate them.
Dog, cockroach must be killed otherwise it would bring overall cockroach population intelligence up which would mean a bigger headache for us.
If the cockroach wants to live, then the cockroach. A bit of hesitation about a human level intelligence and what its life would be like in the body of a cockroach and as the only one like that, I am not sure that would be a happy life, but right now it wants to live.
Dogs are cute, and can be smart, but I would still prioritize the being that is fully sapient as long as it wants to be prioritized.