[Ads-l] Word: substratism (domain: artificial intelligence)

[ADSGarson O'Toole]

Theoretical physicist and science communicator Sabine Hossenfelder
recently xtweeted about a journal article which discussed
"substratism".

Xtweet handle: Sabine Hossenfelder @skdh
Xtweet timestamp: 1:12 PM, Jul 25, 2026
https://x.com/skdh/status/2081065010499875284

[Begin xtweet excerpt]
Humans are super prejudiced against machine minds:

A group of sociologists have studied how much more value humans assign
to other humans – in blood and flesh – versus, hypothetically, the
same mind but run on computer hardware rather than a biological brain.
Across five preregistered studies involving more than 2000 people,
participants were asked to imagine exact digital copies of humans and
pigs with the same thoughts, memories, pleasures and capacity for pain
as their biological originals. When forced to choose, the participants
favoured protecting one biological human over about 1,000 digital
humans, and one biological pig over 1,000 digital pigs.

The researchers call this bias "substratism". Stronger substratism
also predicted giving less money to charity dedicated to welfare of
sentient AI. The effect showed little or no relationship with racism,
sexism or several other established prejudices.
[End xtweet excerpt]

Here is a link to the article which Sabine Hossenfelder was
discussing. The word "substratism" appeared in the article title.

Journal date: December 2026
Journal title: Computers in Human Behavior
Article title: Substratism: Conceptualizing and measuring moral bias against AI
Article authors: Ali Ladak, Janet V.T. Pauketat, Jacy Reese Anthis,
Steve Loughnan, Matti Wilks
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0747563226002177

I searched for early uses of "substratism" on Twitter and found a 2017
tweet containing "anti-substratism".

Twitter handle: OPIS @OPISOrg
Twitter timestamp: 8:47 AM, Dec 15, 2017
https://x.com/OPISOrg/status/941665915816509440

[Begin Twitter excerpt]
OPIS Associate @mherran giving a talk on anti-substratism at
Universidad de La Salle: "Can machines feel?"
https://facebook.com/preventsuffering/posts/1580801665333414
[End Twitter excerpt]

The tweet pointed to a Facebook page:

Facebook page title: Organisation for the Prevention of Intense Suffering - OPIS
Facebook date: December 15, 2017
https://www.facebook.com/preventsuffering/posts/1580801665333414

[Begin Facebook excerpt]
OPIS Associate Manu Herrán giving a talk on anti-substratism: "Can
machines feel?" We don't know exactly what it takes to produce
consciousness, but it's entirely plausible that it could occur in
electronic substrates that mimic some of the functionality of
biological brains. If machines could be made that experience
suffering, it's something we need to take seriously - just like we
take seriously the suffering of any sentient being.
[End Facebook excerpt]

Also, here is a pertinent 2021 tweet:

Twitter handle: @Sentientism @sentientism
Twitter timestamp: 11:50 AM, Feb 23, 2021
https://x.com/sentientism/status/1364256417721573380

[Begin Twitter excerpt]
Beyond speciesism and substratism?
[End Twitter excerpt]

Garson

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