Are we conscious enough to recognize the same in other animals?
Spend 15 minutes and enjoy this beautiful video. It is so inspiring. It may even open your awareness to a new way of seeing our amazing, interconnected universe.
March 10, 2014
Suda ~ The Painting Elephant
Are Animals Conscious? I Dunno—Are We?
Just barely.
A study published by University of Lethbridge Department of Psychology professor Jennifer Mather in 2008 proposed, in summary, that “cephalopod molluscs may have a form of primary consciousness”—that they are “heavily dependent on learning in response to both visual and tactile cues,” “may have domain generality and form simple concepts” and seem “aware of their position, both within themselves and in larger space, including having a working memory of foraging areas in the recent past.” A 2013 study by Mather and Michael J. Kuba summarized that the cephalopod brain “does not just have centralization of the molluscan ganglia but also contains lobes with ‘higher order’ functions such as storage of learned information.” The decentralized nervous system, “particularly in the arms of octopuses, results in decision making at many levels”; the cephalopod “is first and foremost a learning animal, using the display system for deception, having spatial memory, personalities, and motor play. They represent…
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