These cognitive feats are built from the common heritage of all animal life: the capacity to feel. Objective evidence of subjective experience is a contradiction in terms, an impossible standard that sets animals up to fail. Pain is more than just a reflex—can we see the signs we observe in other animals in a machine? However, it is logical and noble to extend special protections to animals, whom we know can suffer pain. It is natural to be partial to our fellow humans and to feel an indescribable connection to our favorite animals.