Editing Sentience

{{Status|Canon}}
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[[File:OstrichesWEINTERCONTINGENSY.jpg|thumb|250px|The moa are a sentient species]]
{{Quote|After exhausting every other strategic option, my creators activated the rings, they, as well as all additional sentient life within three radii of the galactic center, died, as planned.|[[343 Guilty Spark]]<ref>''[[Halo 2]]''</ref>}}

'''Sentience''' is the quality of possessing senses and the abilities of perception (eg. to perceive time).

==Definitions of sentience==
[[File:H2A - Mean Jackal.jpg|thumb|250px|Kig-Yar and Unggoy are both sapient species]]
There are several levels of sentience:

*'''Non-sentience''' refers to living organisms that lack the ability to think or perceive, often used in reference to plant life. The [[Conservation Measure]] had negative effects on non-sentient life, leading to events of mass extinction.<ref>''[[Halo 3]]'', "[[Terminal (Halo 3)|Terminal 1]]"</ref>

*'''Semi-sentience''' refers to beings with emerging sentience or beings with several traits of sentience. A species of tree native to [[Faun Hakkor]] was regarded as semi-sentient, having evolved a form of long-term intelligence and used insects, viruses, bacteria, and fungi as carriers of genetic and hormonal signals to communicate with each other.<ref name="c132">''[[Halo: Cryptum]]'', p. 132-133</ref> Early forms of [[smart AI]]s are regarded as semi-sentient.<ref name="best">''Halo 3'', "[[Bestiarum]]"</ref>

*'''Sentience''' generally refers to low-order thinking life.<ref name="warfleet">''[[Halo: Warfleet]]'', p. 92</ref> While few sentient beings are sapient, all sapient beings are sentient. As such the term "sentient" is often used to encompass all beings capable of sentience.<ref name="best"/>

*'''Sapience''' refers to high-order thinking life, capable of symbolism and abstraction.<ref name="warfleet"/> The term is used to describe beings capable of wisdom, using knowledge, experience, understanding, and common sense to think and act. Sapient beings are self-aware and capable of introspection. Examples of sapient species include [[human]]s and [[San'Shyuum]]s.<ref name="best"/> [[Smart AI]] and [[ancilla]] are regarded as sapient,<ref>[https://www.halowaypoint.com/en-us/news/canon-fodder-armory-amore '''Halo Waypoint''': ''Canon Fodder - Armory Amore'']</ref> having the capacity for wisdom and the ability to perceive.<ref>''Halo: Warfleet'', p. 90</ref>

According to the [[Forerunner]] scale of [[Technological Achievement Tiers]], sufficiently advanced civilizations may be able to reach a stage known as "'''transsentience'''", a state of being above "normal" sentient life forms in factors such as intelligence. Only the [[Precursor]]s fit the category. The [[Gravemind]] may be transsentient, with the Forerunners sometimes viewing the [[Flood]] as a group of subsentient beings controlled by a possibly transsentient Gravemind. The Flood itself gains sentience from consuming the evolved complex neurosystem of one or more sentient entities.<ref name="best"/>

==Artificial intelligence==
Beside biological sentient life, some forms of [[artificial intelligence]] are regarded as sentient; to humans, such constructs are known as [[smart AI]]s. Notably, sentience renders an AI susceptible to a condition known as [[rampancy]], where the AI becomes fully aware of the nature of its existence and begins to rebel against its makers, as well as exhibiting a range of emotions beyond its programmed limits.<ref>''[[Halo: Contact Harvest]]'', p. 31, 378</ref>
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==In relation to the Flood and the Halo Array==
The [[Flood]] consume only organisms that are sentient or have sufficient biomass and calcium to support the infection process. [[Human]]s, most former member species of the [[Covenant]], and many other species are sentient and thus susceptible to Flood infection. Notably, [[Lekgolo]] assemblages cannot be infected because each entity is a gestalt of numerous eel-like creatures and thus lacks a spinal cord. All muliticellular life with a neural system as simple as a notochord (including all sentient species) is vulnerable to the effect of the [[Halo Array]].
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==Sources==
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[[Category:Biology]]