A bee finding its way home is like my phone GPS plotting the way back. My phone doesn’t “feel” or “experience” being lost. It just does what it’s built to do.
Calling consciousness experiencing things to then apply it to everything just feels like a rebrand to make it fit. An interesting read, but until we can accurately measure how to perform a test on a rock to see if it experiences anything, I don’t think it has a good scientific basis.
Like, how can we ignore awareness of self? A dog can experience pain from an infected tooth, but it can’t theorize as to why it happened. Sure, there can be evolutionary traits or learned behaviour, but it’s not aware of the bigger picture. They are always just “in the moment” and act on internal and external stimuli.
Dogs can be intelligent but that doesn’t have to be linked to consciousness or awareness of self. See dolphins and how dogs and other animals react to their reflection.
Also, dogs are domesticated, so they don’t just run on pure instinct. Selective breeding for traits is a thing, so wild animals (like bees as described in the article) is what I’m basing it on.
The reflextion test is overestimated. It won’t really tell you much about self-awareness with either result.
Insects are a lot different from mammals. The further the organism is from us genetically, the harder it is to estimate anything about the way it experiences the world. It is reasonable to think there is as much diversity as there is in physical traits.
A bee finding its way home is like my phone GPS plotting the way back. My phone doesn’t “feel” or “experience” being lost. It just does what it’s built to do.
Calling consciousness experiencing things to then apply it to everything just feels like a rebrand to make it fit. An interesting read, but until we can accurately measure how to perform a test on a rock to see if it experiences anything, I don’t think it has a good scientific basis.
Like, how can we ignore awareness of self? A dog can experience pain from an infected tooth, but it can’t theorize as to why it happened. Sure, there can be evolutionary traits or learned behaviour, but it’s not aware of the bigger picture. They are always just “in the moment” and act on internal and external stimuli.
How do you know a dog is only ever “in the moment”? Dogs are quite complex and inteligent animals. What makes you think they’re not aware?
Dogs can be intelligent but that doesn’t have to be linked to consciousness or awareness of self. See dolphins and how dogs and other animals react to their reflection.
Also, dogs are domesticated, so they don’t just run on pure instinct. Selective breeding for traits is a thing, so wild animals (like bees as described in the article) is what I’m basing it on.
The reflextion test is overestimated. It won’t really tell you much about self-awareness with either result.
Insects are a lot different from mammals. The further the organism is from us genetically, the harder it is to estimate anything about the way it experiences the world. It is reasonable to think there is as much diversity as there is in physical traits.