I've long felt that, given that chimpanzees and humans share 98%+ of their DNA, and gorillas something like 96%, that there's a strong case to be made for classifying our close primate cousins as "junior humans", or "cousins", and extending at least some of the basic protections to them that we humans enjoy. Maybe not property rights or the vote, but certainly the right not to be killed casually by humans for no better reason than to stuff and mount their damn hands. And it would be a distinct advancement in human ethics if it were generally agreed that eating our primate cousins is tantamount to cannibalism.

There's a thread on Space that I didn't have time to join, but wished I could've, about sentience. Personally, I think sentience isn't just a matter of self-awareness, but awareness of others as sentient beings too. The human mind is grown and exists in a social milieu, and isolated human minds quickly fall apart--e.g. Ted Kaczinski. A healthy human mind is constantly interacting with other human minds, and I believe that human sentience is sustained by that interaction.

So when I've looked into the eyes of chimps and gorillas, what struck me as remarkable wasn't a sense that they were self-aware, but that they were aware of me. I've sensed their dim recognition that humans may be rather funny-looking compared to members of their own tribe, but they do recognize us as beings something like themselves.

If only more humans could achieve the same level of sentience as chimpanzees and gorillas, we wouldn't have to worry about the extinction of our primate cousins. Nothing demonstrates that sentience and intelligence are not synonymous than our treatment of other, less-intelligent, sentients.