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Mike Smith's avatar

Fascinating post Suzi!

Having read my share on animal consciousness research, I've come to the conclusion that it's a mistake to ask if a particular species is or isn't conscious. Consciousness is too amorphous a collection of capabilities for those kinds of binary answers. The intuition that it must be there or not seems rooted in remnant Cartesian intuitions.

It's better, I think, to take an incrementalist view, and so ask, what level or kind of consciousness do they have: sensory, affective, episodic memory, theory of mind, etc. In that sense, crows are more conscious than, say, fish or arthropods, but maybe not as much as your typical monkey or great ape.

Of course, if someone insists that only recursive introspective capabilities count, then the number of species that make the cut are much smaller. In the end, consciousness seems like it's in the eye of the beholder.

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Terry underwood's avatar

Excellent genre bender Suzi. The approach you took in the Out of Body post works like gangbusters in this post. Grounding science in personal experience as you’ve done brings so much energy and joy to the read. Curiously, though I know your voice as a scientist in your posts is impeccable in terms of credibility, clarity, and confidence, when you made the shift from Suzi putting treats on a stone and training the birds (which crow was domesticated? tgat was a very cool detail) to Suzi the brain scholar your science voice kicked up a notch. I think it happens hear because of the level of detail and space you allocated to the autobiographical material. Very comfortable, valuable, and enjoyable writing. My two cents:)

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