The inner (conscious?) life of insects and animals

The inner life of animals and plants have fascinated us for a long time, probably since man first emerged on the biological scene. The question of whether or not they possess forms of consciousness have been debated tirelessly by scientists and the average man alike, and the more we learn about our distant (alleged) relatives, the more it seems they actually are conscious. In their own kind of way.

Mammals and birbs

There’s been quite a lot of research done on animals and birds like crows, octopi, dogs, dolphins, etc., while we’ve been disregarding the possibility for insects, reptile and fish having consciousness.

Crows, for example, have been showing impressive results in different tasks, ranging from learning actual human words and speech, playing games, to using tools to achieve goals, to actual self-awareness in mirror tests. They have been known to spread information among themselves, holding grudges for generations against wrong-doers.

Defining consciousness

While running tests can show impressive results about our animal friends, some people still are skeptical about the results. This stems mostly from the difficulty in actually defining consciousness. We assume ourselves as humans to be conscious so we have a baseline of what we perceive consciousness as. When we try to define it animals, however, there’s too many unknown. Consciousness doesn’t equal intelligence, necessarily. Neither do we really know if consciousness is a spectrum or if it’s binary as in it’s either present or not.

Some people point out that when animals react to environmental stimuli, it doesn’t necessary mean they are acting consciously, but rather following pre-programmed directions imbedded in their genetic code responding to environment.

The problem with a lot of this skepticism can be applied to humans as well as can be seen in a lot of arguments from those arguing for determinism. There are a lot of humans that mostly follow a pre-programmed route and reacting to stimuli; are these people less conscious than others, or not conscious at all? Are a person like Sherlock Holmes, who takes in every single bit of information and process it consciously, conscious? Is he more conscious than others?

This is the beauty of consciousness, we’ll probably never be able to define it fully.

What about the insects?

With these difficulties in mind we do have some interesting examples of how insects display forms of consciousness. Bees, for examples, have been found to engage in play with each other. This could be indicative of “phenomenal consciousness”, according to some.

This type of behavior include pushing small wooden balls around with no apparent connection to survival or mating, but seemingly just for the heck of it.

My 2 cents

Personally, I believe all, or at least, most organisms do possess some form of consciousness. Consciousness is something we can tap into, like attention. When we actively pay attention to something we’re exhibiting higher levels of consciousness. Of course, our physical biology set the limits on what we can pay attention too, and how, and thus, I think, it’s rather connected with intelligence.

The less intelligent the lifeform, the less it can act consciously, while most larger animals that have larger brains and are considered more intelligent, may display higher forms of consciousness.

Do you think all animals possess consciousness? Or just some?

2024-05-14 11:20