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Old 05-31-2006, 03:03 PM   #26
FFR
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Self-AWareness adn Intelligence are two completely different things. lot's of animals are aware of their surroundings and who their owners are but I dont' believe all of them know who they are. I dont' think a dog sits and thinks "I'm a dog."

Even humans don't have self-awareness before the age of around 3. If you put a child infront of a mirror with a blue dot on their nose before they have attained self-awareness they may attempt to interact with the "child" in the mirror but they dont realize that it is themselves. Once a child has attained self awareness, they will try and see what the blue dot on their nose is and will use the mirror to determine what it is.

I think most animals remain in the state of non self-awareness. My cats will not look in the mirror. If you bring them to the mirror they will not look at it and I think it is because they think it's another animal and don't want to deal with it. I don't think that most animals have the processing power to understand the concept of "self." Self awareness is definately something that sets us apart from other animals. I would be interested to see whether they determine if gorillas or other great apes have self awareness.
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