We experience ourselves and our surroundings through our consciousness, and yet it is such a mysterious thing. Since we know consciousness only through our own experiences, we find it natural and easy to point out at things that make us special - like our ability to use language and our complex reasoning patterns - and then somehow extrapolate that these things that make us special are intimately connected to our ability of experiencing consciousness.
But, unless I am very mistaken, there is literally no evidence to support this hypothesis. It is a conjecture that we’ve made up because it is easy to believe it. We start from the position that we agree that we humans are conscious - and then other systems have to somehow prove their consciousness… Despite our inability of proving that humans experience consciousness!
Personally, I am of the view that the phenomenon of consciousness is a lot more widespread than we currently imagine. It find it hard to believe that that we are so special, and that it was necessary for humans to evolve until this magical phenomenon of “consciousness” began to take shape.
I think the main reason of the “default assumption” that only humans have consciousness is that we ourselves are human, and we are only able to prove our own consciousness. Culturally, at least in the Western worldview, humans are framed as equal. This means that we feel comfortable saying that other humans have consciousness as well, but start to get a little antsy about saying that “lesser” creatures have that same experience.
The thing is, we can’t actually prove our own consciousness. I know that I am conscious, because I am me. But I can’t prove that to anyone else, and no one else can prove to me that they are conscious. We use pragmatism here and make the choice to accept each other’s consciousness, because if we are not pragmatic we are pulled right into an existential crisis.
We are happy to apply this pragmatic view to each other, but not to other beings. Other beings are expected to prove the impossible before we let them into the consciousness club.
The reason I say we can “prove” our consciousness is not because we can prove it to others, I mean we can prove it to ourselves because we can experience it. Anything outside our current consciousness, however, is not available with such ready belief. For everything else we must be taught to trust that it is true, even if it is impossible to have absolute proof of it.
To be fair… We have created societies, developed uniquely complex languages across the whole world and then managed to learn each other’s languages, we write books and online posts to transmit knowledge through generations, we have managed to take over a good chunk of the earth and destroyed most of the nature in it, and we can develop technology like no other species… We have even gone to space! I do think we are pretty special in many ways. Not everything is good, but we are still special.
Consciousness, though? I suspect that the underlying phenomenon is fundamental. I don’t think that there is an ‘on/off’ switch that gets triggered only after some information processing threshold is exceeded. But maybe it does, we have no way of measuring this. All I can say is that my guess can’t be much better or worse than any other guess.
We’ve got three cats and a dog. The dog is my partner’s first personal pet. He talks a lot about how amazing their personalities and intelligence are now that he’s lived with his own animals for a few years. They definitely think, dream, and understand way more than we give them credit for. Hell, dogs can understand over something like 150-200 words, and we barely use more than that in normal speech. More and more were finding animals have accents, octopus have cities, etc. I just kind of see us as a louder echo of many of these things. Unfortunately one of those things that does set us apart is that we forget we’re part of the same world that they are.
this humans are so special bias drives me up a wall. we’ve been through several iterations of this. oh other animals do feel emotions, oh other animals do dream, oh other animals are altruistic, oh other animals also use language… like, anybody with a pet and a good bond with them could have told you most of that.
Hard agree... Learning to communicate well with a cat teaches you most of this, and the rest becomes obvious when you realize how individual their personality and behaviour is compared to others of the same species.
I think it should also be considered that if we have consciousness then it has to evolve at some point. And if it something complex, and in this case I'm sure it is, then it's going to takes millions of years minimum to evolve. Unless someone think consciousness developed when humans, neanderthals and our other relatives evolved from whatever relatively recent ancestor, then where consciousness began is going to have to be pushed back. The further it's pushed back the more animals there are with consciousness.
Ultimately it's up to the brain and our brains aren't that different from other animals.
The “you wouldn’t download a car” joke is one thing. What I don’t understand is how people genuinely use a satirical joke as a supporting argument for piracy, or a critique of anti-piracy.
The advertising never said downloading a car. It was stealing a car, which is very clearly a crime.
You are free to claim auto theft is not comparable to digital piracy. You are free to suggest that somehow in the future you’d be able to home manufacturer a vehicle (although a bit far fetched IMO). But criticizing an ad campaign for something they’ve never said is just silly.
If I stole someone’s car, and an exact copy of the car was left there for them, I’d probably be okay with stealing a car. Copying a file isn’t the same as stealing a physical album. That’s the criticism of that ad campaign, they aren’t equal comparisons. Besides, if buying isn’t owning, then copying isn’t stealing.
Optics and propaganda is the point. They throw a climate conference, the disinterested public sees that “people are trying” and goes about their day ignorant of the ongoing atrocities destroying our planet
Having access to every Star Trek ever was great, but Netflix's recommendation algorithm was top notch. It gave me things I would never have sought out but loved anyway.
But since Netflix started just pushing their own shit, regardless of whether I'd like it or whether I'd already watched it or whether it was literally cancelled by Netflix it's enshittified to the point I don't know why I still pay for it.
As somebody who has been using Netflix since before they even had streaming as an option, I think a lot of people really over-inflate how good the offering was in the early years of their streaming unless you just loved watching reruns of cable television from the 90s and 2000s.
Make no mistake, the offering now is worse. But it’s not like it was truly a central, low priced hub for everything you wanted to watch.
Yeah I guess I’m overstating my case a bit. But still, when it was the place for legal streaming the piracy numbers were at an all time low. Turns out people don’t mind paying a fair sum for good availability and convenience.
It wasn’t just the content, it was the delivery of watching whatever you chose whenever you chose and wherever you chose for a reasonable monthly fee. Even without a massive catalogue it was 1000 times better than cable and the existing services that charged stupidly high fees for on demand temporary access.
It did have a lot of movies in addition to the series though, even if I had seen most of them because they started with the popular ones.
But would it disappear someday without warning? I’m not one to do a lot of pirating but the times I’m most tempted to take up the habit are when things that were supposed to be “purchased” just disappear and there’s nothing customers can do about it…or when I see some crazy anti-pirating argument. The urge to do it out of spite is real.
Depends whether or not they hide some code to give them the option to remote disable your files after you’ve downloaded them, and if they to restrict your ability to create backup copies & play your files on devices you own.
There’s no reason why they couldn’t make stuff available in ways which buyers could feel confident in.
I’ve definitely appreciated when certain cool, open minded creators have released content DRM free but they are going against the grain of the big money platforms. But, I agree, like many things that would make the world a little cooler, there’s no concrete reason it couldn’t be done.
Likely going to have to be forced on the industry, by some mix of piracy, legislation, reality & artists’ choices.
Meantime, convenience has considerable sway. For the generations for whom music was expensive & awkward to acquire (& who have the most disposable income now to spend on music as well as the most faith in companies), this still seems easier than pushing back.
No its not. Making fun and ridicule is the only method. The people who believe that shit are plain stupid. The smart ones will get the hint and move on. Empathy for it is allowing them to become victims. Fuck pseudoscience. Shut them down every chance you get.
Or y’know, go with what works rather than what satisfies our frustration on the topic.
I can’t comment on which strategies work best, but if research came to demonstrate that empathy works better than ridicule, continuing to use ridicule would in itself be a pseudo-scientific approach.
Haha, this is the most Western, Neoliberal headline ever, which also is extra funny that it comes from The Economist. Anyone that’s had a relationship with an animal knows this. Seems intuitive with things like Buddhism. But, it’s a cool read for the science.
Anyone that's had a relationship with an animal knows this.
Only losely related, but I believe your anecdotal evidence lines up with my own as well. I adopted 2 cats last year and find myself more seriously considering veganism lately. Sure, I anthropomorphize a lot of their actions and behaviors, but I'm learning there's a lot more to animals than I previously thought.
They are family and more like us than we give them credit for even if we communicate in different ways. Pets are so rewarding if you give them the autonomy to be themselves.
The views and actions of the Trump administration with regard to such topics as climate change, environmental protection, and the COVID-19 pandemic were widely condemned as a Republican war on science. But even among conservative Republicans, the proportion with a high level of trust in scientific expertise rose more between 2016 and 2020 than the proportion with a low level of trust.
So the hypocritical cult seekritly still believe in science while still drinking bleach and horse de-wormer.
I guess we’re supposed to be relieved or something.
I’m happy that researchers are publishing their data on this, but I wish they’d include discussions of some of the bad faith antics organizations are pulling while pretending to push return-to-office (RTO). This goes way beyond reasserting control over their employees, like the firms owning those buildings and expecting rent from same-site retail businesses that need the higher foot traffic RTO could bring or wanting to do a round of layoffs without paying for severance.
I like this author’s attitude. I scoffed a bit when I read about “joy that can be found in mediocrity” but he’s right that you can (and should) just do something because you enjoy it or it’s good for you.
“So why not buy more oil? I mean, we are all going to die anyway. Take some hookers and blow back to your penthouse suite and relax till you have to read this prewritten statement by our PR firm letting your people back home know there is nothing they can do either and we will all boil to death. Money is your god, remember? And you CAN take it with you”
And our new one M(9) = 286386577668298411128469151667598498812366
That is two hundred eighty-six duodecillion, three hundred eighty-six undecillion, five hundred seventy-seven decillion, six hundred sixty-eight nonillion, two hundred ninety-eight octillion, four hundred eleven septillion, one hundred twenty-eight sextillion, four hundred sixty-nine (noice) quintillion, one hundred fifty-one quadrillion, six hundred sixty-seven trillion, five hundred ninety-eight billion, four hundred ninety-eight million, eight hundred twelve thousand, three hundred sixty-six.
That is two hundred eighty-six duodecillion, three hundred eighty-six undecillion, five hundred seventy-seven decillion, six hundred sixty-eight nonillion, two hundred ninety-eight octillion, four hundred eleven septillion, one hundred twenty-eight sextillion, four hundred sixty-nine quintillion, one hundred fifty-one quadrillion, six hundred sixty-seven trillion, five hundred ninety-eight billion, four hundred ninety-eight million, eight hundred twelve thousand, three hundred sixty-six.
science
Hot
This magazine is from a federated server and may be incomplete. Browse more on the original instance.