Question

Difference between sentience and sapience

Answer 1

The term “sapient” is mostly used in SF circles, as I understand it, and is roughly a less anthropocentric term for “human-level intelligent”. It would be bad form to call the population of an advanced alien civilisation “human-level intelligent”, especially if they’re actually supposed to be smarter than us humans.

“Sentient”, on the other hand, means being able to perceive or feel things. It can be synonymous with “conscious”, although the definitions people use for that word vary more.

So, in other words, a sentient and sapient being is one that is (human-level) intelligent and conscious; a person like you or I. Or some hypothetical person who might not be human, like Mr Spock.

A sentient but not sapient being would be an animal that feels emotions; a dog, perhaps.

A being neither sentient nor sapient would be a mindless automaton; either a literal one such as a robot, or a simple lifeform like a bacterium.

A sapient but not sentient being is hypothetical, but could perhaps be “a person without a soul”, or an AI with a mechanical sort of intelligence that lacks e.g. qualia of “the redness of red” when its cameras detect the colour red.