Are animals conscious? New research • Hacker News Board

Re: Are animals conscious? New research

#541

Post by matt-attack » Sun, Jun 23, 2024, 1:53 AM UTC

Funny that we struggle determining if animals are conscious - when I think a deeper question is in front of us: is anyone BUT YOU conscious? Science isn’t usually settled simply by taking people’s word for something. And yet the ONLY creature on this planet I can ever truly know is conscious is ME.

You might tell me you are and I might sort of assume you are since you’re the “same model” - but really, I have no way of knowing you’re experiencing subjectivity the same way I am. Let’s start with our fellow humans before we got onto sperm whales.

Re: Are animals conscious? New research

#542

Post by moi2388 » Mon, Jun 24, 2024, 6:18 AM UTC

senordevnyc wrote: post #432

LawrenceKerr wrote: post #416

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Can we deduce from your comment that you are in fact, not conscious? We all know what it's like to be conscious (I presume - my theory of mind is intact but may be flawed). It's obviously the quality of being, i.e. experiencing qualia. And since we as human beings are conscious, it stands to reason that there are probably other living beings (or matter in general) who are not. (Living) matter that doesn't experience…

It quite literally is the only thing we can know for sure exists To be precise, it's the only thing I can know for sure exists. I can't know for sure if anyone else knows it.

What is? Consciousness? Are you conscious when asleep? No? Then how do dreams work?

The only thing you can be sure of is that you experience some qualia; that you are conscious is an assumption.

Re: Are animals conscious? New research

#543

Post by Fire-Dragon-DoL » Fri, Jun 28, 2024, 5:44 PM UTC

nkoren wrote: post #389

kevin42 wrote: post #383

Earlier quoted context omitted.

One of our cats was very old (18+) and sick. We made the choice to have her euthanized to end her suffering and the vet came to our house to do it. One of our other (male) cats loved her and always tried to cuddle her. My wife took the old kitty out of the room where they were cuddling, and after it was done she thought she would let him say goodbye. He got very upset at my wife and hissed at her for days. He's norma…

A friend of mine had two kittens -- siblings, who were very close to each other. One of them was hit by a car and killed. I had adored this kitten, so in memory of her I did a chalk drawing portrait of the kitten, and brought it over to my friend as gift, about a week after the kitten had died. The surviving sibling had, during that time, seemed somewhat morose and unresponsive, but also kind of cryptic in the way th…

That story hit me in the heart, thank you for sharing

Re: Are animals conscious? New research

#544

Post by vasilipupkin » Mon, Jul 01, 2024, 1:07 PM UTC

NayamAmarshe wrote: post #281

vasilipupkin wrote: post #245

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The way you are phrasing your disagreement with prevailing consensus is just semantics. Ok, let’s say animals are not 0% conscious, let’s say a certain animal is 24% conscious. It’s reasonable to say that, in comparison to a human, this animal is not conscious. Clearly, my cat exhibits some awareness of what’s going on, it’s not totally mindless. But to call it conscious in the way that we apply this term to humans i…

So a human with a lesser IQ and EQ would be less conscious with that logic, hence worth much less and yet the concept of justice applies equally. Intelligence is not consciousness. Consciousness is the thing that animates otherwise dead matter.

By that logic plants are conscious ? What about fungus ?