We apply the same process to more than just people. We attribute awareness to our pet cats and dogs, and some people even swear that their houseplants are conscious. The ancients felt sure that trees and rivers were sentient; children perceive consciousness in their favorite toys; and heck, the other day I got mad at my computer. So I’m not talking about intellectually figuring out whether something has a mind or cleverly deducing what might be in that mind—although we do that, too. I’m talking about an automatic, gut intuition, which is often wrong but sometimes persuasively potent, that an
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