Animal Intelligence and Self Awareness

Some thoughts on animal intelligence, self awareness, culture, etc.

Category:

People & Blogs

Tags:

• animal
• intelligence
• self
• awareness
• abstract
• thought
• long
• term
• thinking
• epistemology
• crows
• primates
• parrots
• human
• beings
• culture
• technology

[screenflicker1]

This is so interesting!!!!!!!!! This is a direct conflict statement with all the new age 'awareness' 'consciousness' gurus. You realize that?

[XOmniverse]

@screenflicker1 I assume most common sense, rational explanations of things are in conflict with new age bullshit.

[DiscensVivere]

Interesting video, xOmniverse.

You don't consider self-recognition in a mirror a form of self-awareness?

Just as an example: search YouTube for W-pc_M2qI74, or search for DXk17vpYYgA.

Ever heard of the language experiments with Koko, the gorilla?

Again, just as an example: search YouTube for: Pmuu8UEi2ko.

Guy

[XOmniverse]

I think mirror tests do show some amount of self-awareness, yes. Which is why only a few animals pass them.

[DiscensVivere]

Well, the ones that did pass thus far, are: the Great Apes (chimpanzees, bonobos, gorillas, orangutans...and humans), Cetaceans (bottlenose dolphins, orcas), elephants, magpies, crows, trained pigeons. FYI: humans under the age of 18 months do not pass the mirror test.

[XOmniverse]

I'm not sure what your point is.

Are you arguing that passing a mirror test means abstract thought on the level of human beings?

Where's gorilla cars or dolphin radio? :P

[enterthepigger]

Start every video below your desk, then slowly rise as you say "From the depths of time, he rises. Forged in logic, his iron mind demolishes all. His name... is... XOMNIVERSE [Make sure to death growl that part]" Then subtly engage a death metal song, perhaps with a wireless mouse, and the headbang the shit out of yourself. That would warrant 5 stars outright.

[XxxNuMbxxX0301]

Fucking dinosaurs: they never cease to shit on my car!

[rsouthern]

Dude, just drop everything you have ever been taught and start over with understanding everything is a lie, you are a lie, life is a lie because you are a programed person. my perscription for you is drop your parents, religions, governments, friends while start being alone, smoking crystal meth, shit outside and smell it because thats you an animal while humans are aliens

[lifeishowitis]

Have you heard before about the chimp in Sweden who did future planning, collecting stones when he was calm at night and keeping them to throw at people during the day? I was going to link but it seems to not want to let me. What do you think of it?

[TheAUKid]

That was pretty good. I've been trying to define 'sense of self' or 'self awareness' and I think you did it for me. I will say, though (and someone else might have said it) that other animals have been shown to plan, make tools and form cultures etc... The National Geographic doco 'The Human Ape' shows apes can do all of that and more.

[wilderr]

read 'sources of normativity' by korsgaard.

[zzzohmy]

That makes a lot of sense. It's crazy though, how we're starting to find out how some animals are more intelligent than previously thought, like the raven and octopus.

[tehinfidel]

Planning behaviour seems to be a separate, or even preceding, step to self-awareness. There is likely a high correlation, but it seems to come about in the opposite order. Evidence in the video response I posted.

Capuchins plan for the future by dropping hard nuts on the ground, and return later when they've dried out, but they are not aware that a mirror image is themselves, whereas great apes are.

Also see Santino the chimp, who collects rocks before his zoo opens to lob at visitors. :-)

[DiscensVivere]

The point that I was trying to make, is that since self-awareness is clearly a product of evolution, it's probably more widespread than we realize (or would like to think).

Home sapiens sapiens defintely holds a very unique position, but as Sigmund Freud (and other psychoanalysts) showed, we might be less conscious and more primitive in our thinking than we sometimes realize.

Also, let's not forget that most of our breakthroughs date from the last 0.05% of our existance as a species.