- Oct
- 28
Animal Minds
Posted by Steve Martindale at 12:11 PM | Permalink | Comments (6)
Are animals conscious in the way that we are? What goes on in their minds? I can't say for sure, but it doesn't surprise me that elephants distinguish between different human languages as they listen to us or that dolphins have a strong sense of self and can think about the future.
I sometimes run into rankings of the world's smartest animals, a list that usually includes humans at the top (hmmm, I'm suspicious already) and dolphins, chimpanzees, pigs, dogs, parrots, and so on down a ladder of some sort. But these IQ comparisons use human abilities as the yardstick by which to judge all others—they're rigged! How would people score on a bat's IQ test, I wonder? We can't even begin to locate flying mosquitoes by screaming and listening for the echo, let alone catch them in the air while flittering around in the dark night sky. Let's face it: Humans flunk that test with a score of zero. Ditto for the robin IQ test, and the zebra one, and the honeybee's.
Animals freely pursuing their own lives are all brilliant at doing whatever it is that they normally do: locating food, making homes, finding mates, avoiding predators, migrating, and so on. And along the way, they feel joy and love and hate and fear and pain. What really amazes me is that some of them pack so much mental ability into such tiny packages.
Our best guess is that all vertebrates have similar sentience. Differences abound, but conscious awareness of our surroundings is based on kindred neural processing, even if different sensory input is used to construct mental pictures. The bat probably surveys the night sky and has a field of view—an image-in mind based on echolocation instead of vision. In fact, people can learn how to use sound instead of vision to construct mental maps as well. We are of one mind, in a sense.
But what is it like to be, say, an insect? That's tougher to fathom, because our bodies are so different. Recent research indicates that there is a lot going on in the minds of insects: They are likely to be conscious, not just tiny mindless robots. Are bigger brains better? Not necessarily. A lot of what bigger brains do is supply sensory input from bigger bodies, innervate more muscles, produce more detail, add finer resolution, maintain larger memory banks, and so on. But there is no reason to suppose that the extra information processing going on in bigger brains results in higher consciousness or higher intelligence when it comes to making the kinds of decisions that animals make in their daily lives. Consider a honeybee: A worker has at least 59 different behavioral skills, all of which require making a series of decisions. The bee's mental activity includes a stream of decisionmaking, and he or she is probably actively aware of that process. There is an actor involved in deciding what to do at any given moment, not just a hard-wired robot programmed with a series of reflexes. There is something that it is like to be a honeybee as opposed to an electronic gadget programmed to behave like one. And there appears to be no minimum brain size to feel pain.
What about animals who don't move? Is a sea anemone conscious? You tell me.
Posted to Family & Friends | Posted to Tags: animal minds, dolphins, Elephants, Steve Martindale
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Michael says...
October 28th, 2011, 6:24 pm
Thank you so much for this amazing article! I am always trying to say this and explain this but without the information and vocabulary you have at your disposal! I have been defending insects (and animals of course) since I was young and everyone laughed at me and insisted on telling me that they are only little robots. I just refuse to believe that. Why do humans think they know everything? There are new scientific discoveries every day – who is to say that one day we won't discover that fish are more intelligent than we are for example? Besides why should intelligence matter so much anyway? I'm sure pain feels equally painful to a stupid person as it does to a highly-educated, intelligent person.
Thanks again!
Vicky Slay says...
October 28th, 2011, 7:54 pm
There is no doubt in my mind that mice and rats have basic feelings for one another. I had 4 rats and one died during an operation. I should the others her body and they gathered around a block for a table. I put grapes on the table and only one took the grape down beside it. They were mourning for the other rat. I was amazed then felt bad I showed her to them, but they were missing her. She loved to be hugged and petted. I used to give them baths in the tub. They like being clean. The others eventually died too of cancer because they breed them so much inner breeding they form cancer bumps. I took them to a vet who gave me some medication to help, but they eventually all passed.
Rob says...
October 30th, 2011, 9:48 am
Non-human animals show an amazing depth or intelligence, and those people who actually observe them see depth of emotion too, as Vicky above says. The fact that so many humans claim non-human animals don't think or feel as much is just an excuse to abuse and exploit for personal profit and kicks…revealing many humans do not think or observe or even feel for themselves. That's not intelligent.
Patty Bowers says...
October 30th, 2011, 1:13 pm
WHAT a fabulous article. THANK YOU THANK YOU Steve! And I totally agree with all you wrote, especially if we humans are so much smarter why are we killing each other and starving and destroying ourselves off the planet? Does ethics have ANYTHING to do with being smart? if so, I believe dogs may be the smartest animals on the planet as they can love no matter WHAT happens to them, while we humans will often resort to war, revenge and other despicable behaviors. WHO defines smart? I wish we lived in a world where "Smart" was based on compassion, ethics, kindness and sustainability. Maybe someday values will evolve to that point and then we will be REALLY Smart! Namaste' Steve, Patty
Mark says...
October 31st, 2011, 1:28 am
Thank you so much for this amazing article! I am always trying to say this and explain this but without the information and vocabulary you have at your disposal! I have been defending insects (and animals of course) since I was young and everyone laughed at me and insisted on telling me that they are only little robots. I just refuse to believe that. Why do humans think they know everything? There are new scientific discoveries every day – who is to say that one day we won't discover that fish are more intelligent than we are for example? Besides why should intelligence matter so much anyway? I'm sure pain feels equally painful to a stupid person as it does to a highly-educated, intelligent person.
+1
Lise says...
October 31st, 2011, 1:32 pm
Thank you for this beautiful article. I have always believed that animals are intelligent and have feelings like us . When you observe them you can see right away how smart they are .It always amaze me that people don't see that. It 's so obvious. Unless you are stupid and ignorant which I think a lot of people are.
Like Patty Bowers said "smart" should be based on compassion,ethics…
If there's a thing that animals don't have , is cruelty. And we humans master it very well.