- What is consciousness?
Who has it?
Luckily there's a test.
Even defining consciousness
is tricky business,
because we have these amazing brains
that manifest this amazing mind,
and then we can use this mind
to tackle complex computations
or to dream up entire fantasy worlds.
But when we try to figure
out what consciousness is
and who we are,
we run into trouble.
This is where the mind body
problem comes into play.
Our philosophic attempt to rectify
the physical brain with
the manifested mind.
So can we test for consciousness?
Well, we can certainly
test for self awareness,
which is certainly a
hallmark of consciousness.
In 1970, psychiatrist Gordon Gallup, Jr.
Came up with the mirror
test for self awareness.
And this is a pretty basic
principle at play here,
because what happens when
you or I look into a mirror?
Well, we see ourselves.
We say, hey, that's me
and I can see what kind of shape I'm in,
what my hair is doing,
how beautiful I am today, right?
Well, this particular test
involves marking the test subject
with a little bit of ink, or dye.
And what happens when you look in a mirror
and you see some paint on your face.
You reach up and you touch it, right?
You start pawing around,
thinking what is this and
how can I get it off of me?
The idea here is that they
can look in the mirror,
see this version of themselves
and identify it as themselves.
But here's where things get mind-blowing.
Because we can take the mirror test,
or some variation of it,
and test it on animals.
And who can pass it?
Well, the great apes,
bottle-nosed dolphins,
elephants, orcas and even one
bird, the European magpie.
And then there's the octopus to consider.
Now these multi-armed mollusks
evolved a rather complex brain,
almost entirely independently of mammals.
Now they're not as
visually attuned as we are,
so if you give them the mirror
test for self awareness,
they're going to flunk it.
They respond to the reflection,
but they don't see it as themselves.
However, there are plenty
of experts who point to
other aspects of octopi cognition,
such as tool use, learning
and object recognition,
as signs that they are in
fact self aware and conscious.
So there you have it.
We're still trying to figure
out what consciousness is.
We have this wonderful
test for self awareness.
And as we learn more
about how the brain works,
and how consciousness works,
we'll hopefully develop even better tools
to understand exactly what's going on.
So what about you?
Do you ever witness any conscious behavior
in your household pets?
What do you think when you
go to a sushi restaurant
and you see octopi on the menu?
Let us know, we'd love to hear from you.
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