Social Self

[Guest guest]

Hi Pete.

 

Let me say that my idea is that every animal and not only those but

also lice and worms which have to meet their own species with their

own inherited way of sociality must have consciousness. So orangutans

or pandas or lice have their way of consiouness specialized to

commune with their species.

 

Werner

 

Werner, I have no problem with the above, except:

Lice and worms responses to each other

and the world are very rigid and

invariable and are handled at an instinctual level.

Consciousness, on the other hand, is a survival

tool designed to handle complex situations not

preprogrammed by instinct.

 

Take for example an octopus raised in an aquarium

who has never seen another octopus. If you place

a lobster inside a capped glass jar and dropped it

in the aquarium, after a few tries the octopus

will figure out how to unscrew the cap and take the

lobster out. Obviously, this animal seem to have

passed no only the consciousness test, but an

intelligence test on his own.

 

So I don't think we are that far apart on this. We

both agree that consciousness is a product and a tool

of interaction. You seem to limit that interaction

to social communication. I take the broader view that

it's interaction designed to cope with an ever changing

environment.