7 of 100 INTERESTING THOUGHTS OR QUESTIONS
THOUGHT / QUESTION - How conscious do you feel that animals are?
Backstory - There are many ways to use social media and I have tons of content to share but recently I was asked an interesting question and it really made me think. There are many of these odd questions that can open our minds to interesting thoughts and ideas and I figured what better place to share than here on STEEM! Over the next 100 hours I will be putting out 100 thought provoking questions and looking forward to seeing your responses.
Please follow along and don’t forget to comment and upvote.
It depend on what "level of consciousness" do you refer to. Most animals when they see themselves in the mirror don't even recognise that its their own reflection. Meaning that they are not self-concious some research would suggest. And another thing is that animals mostly live by instincts, which I think dont "use" consciousness to help them survive. So I'd say I do feel like they are not all that concious at all. I liked the question and would love to see your take on it. :)
"You state that consciousness is not merely a human experience and cite the Cambridge Declaration of Consciousness drafted in 2012. Tell us about this new interpretation and how it relates to our fellow creatures.
The issue over consciousness, like many aspects of animal behavior, is confused by a lack of definitions people agree on. We tend to use the word consciousness to mean a variety of different things. Some people say if you can plan years ahead it shows consciousness, but that just shows planning.
If you’re having a mental experience, you are conscious. The question really is, do other species have mental experiences or do they sense things without having any sensation of what they are experiencing? Like a motion sensor senses motion but it probably doesn’t experience that it senses motion. Animals do—they react to movement: fight or flight or curiosity.
It is incredible to me there is still a debate over whether animals are conscious and even a debate over whether human beings can know animals are conscious. If you watch mammals or even birds, you will see how they respond to the world. They play. They act frightened when there’s danger. They relax when things are good. It seems illogical for us to think that animals might not be having a conscious mental experience of play, sleep, fear or love. "
Reference: https://news.nationalgeographic.com/2015/07/150714-animal-dog-thinking-feelings-brain-science/
I'm a strong believer of what you just typed here. This because of dozen's of own experiences that I had in my life.
Already when I was a kid I always knew very quick to connect with whatever animal that came on my way.
most people don't even Remarque these little things and are to busy with feeling superior . It's a shame because they are very aware and have more consciousness then we humans one would say sometimes.
a perfect example is when I was sleeping in a squad some time ago, there where some people that arrived uninvited with bad intentions. They wanted to steal the money of the party that was in the same room as I was sleeping but my dog stayed up all night to stop every attempt when someone try'd to enter the room .
what I'm trying to say is that she was very aware that these guys where up to no good, and she saw it as a danger to me so she acts on what she realizes, feels , see , smells, hears , like every living creature does.
only a lot of people are to ignorant to even want to see this .
and this is only 1 experience , and I have a dozen of these examples of experiences that I had, and this with a lot of different sort of animals domestic and wild ....
That is a good experience. I will say that I did not type it. It is a quote from the reference I posted.
I have several animals and I believe all are very conscious.