#consciousness#neuroscience "The more scientists test animals, the more they find that many species may have inner lives and be sentient."
Far more animals than previously thought likely have consciousness, top scientists say in a new declaration — including fish, lobsters and octopus.
Notice what happens when you actually pay attention to other living things?
I've pretty much always believed that EVERYTHING is conscious to some extent. Consciousness rising out of matter simply made no sense, whereas matter rising out of consciousness seemed perfectly logical. So, animal consciousness, even insects, was no stretch.
Of course they are sentient if by ‘sentient’ we mean feel pain etc. Evolution has made them that way so that they can learn to avoid harm. But we need to be careful about words. Sentience is not the same as having an explicit awareness of self. The mirror test does not prove an explicit awareness.
It'll be interesting to find out the earliest common ancestor that was conscious.
"In the 17th century, the French philosopher René Descartes argued that animals were merely “material automata” — lacking souls or consciousness." ... Well, at least he only set science back by 400 years, as opposed to Plato's ririculous musings that were held as the truth for 2,000 years.
Bout damn time.