Are cats conscious like us?

AProudLefty

AProudLefty

Black Kitty Ain't Happy
I was watching the monobob race after the Superbowl.

My cat named Fuzzy kept moving her head to the left then to the right then to down just like while I was watching it. Clearly she knew what was going on.
 
AProudLefty said:
I was watching the monobob race after the Superbowl.

My cat named Fuzzy kept moving her head to the left then to the right then to down just like while I was watching it. Clearly she knew what was going on.
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they're engineered to react to motion so followinga moving object is quite normal. Quite a lot of animals do this. Mainly ones concerned about eating protein or being eaten.
 
AProudLefty said:
I was watching the monobob race after the Superbowl.

My cat named Fuzzy kept moving her head to the left then to the right then to down just like while I was watching it. Clearly she knew what was going on.
Click to expand...

Any creature that can be tricked by a laser dot can't be that smart. ;)

My favorite is to run the dot under a closet door then stop and see how long my cat digs under the door before giving up.

cat-laser.gif
 
AProudLefty said:
I was watching the monobob race after the Superbowl.

My cat named Fuzzy kept moving her head to the left then to the right then to down just like while I was watching it. Clearly she knew what was going on.
Click to expand...
That doesn't seem particularly significant, but cats and other higher animals have memory, emotions, rudimentary reasoning skills.
 
Cypress said:
That doesn't seem particularly significant, but cats and other higher animals have memory, emotions, rudimentary reasoning skills.
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True, but not in the human sense of "I think, therefore I am". They're pure Zen; totally in the moment. They don't reflect, they just are. They don't think about the future or the past, they just react to the moment.

Larger animals such as elephants and whales/porpoises may be closer than dogs and cats to cognition but there's still that divide.

Admittedly, "this subject area needs more research" https://www.sciencefocus.com/nature...brains-let-the-battle-of-the-brains-commence/
 
Dutch Uncle said:
True, but not in the human sense of "I think, therefore I am". They're pure Zen; totally in the moment. They don't reflect, they just are. They don't think about the future or the past, they just react to the moment.

Larger animals such as elepha

nts and whales/porpoises may be closer than dogs and cats to cognition but there's still that divide.

Admittedly, "this subject area needs more research" https://www.sciencefocus.com/nature...brains-let-the-battle-of-the-brains-commence/
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Right I do not think the science is settled, and animals have continually surprised us at how complex they are.

The fact that I can observe animals have memory, demostrates to me they think about the past. They can remember people, animals, and events from their past, and even have emotional responses to it.
 
Cypress said:
Right I do not think the science is settled, and animals have continually surprised us at how complex they are.

The fact that I can observe animals have memory, demostrates to me they think about the past. They can remember people, animals, and events from their past, and even have emotional responses to it.
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There's a difference between memory and reflection. Our computers remember lots of things but they don't reflect. While I've watched my dog dream, I've never observed him "reflecting" on the dog up the road. That said, once allowed outside, he'll go to certain spots to mark them; the same spots the other dogs marked.
 
Dutch Uncle said:
There's a difference between memory and reflection. Our computers remember lots of things but they don't reflect. While I've watched my dog dream, I've never observed him "reflecting" on the dog up the road. That said, once allowed outside, he'll go to certain spots to mark them; the same spots the other dogs marked.
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I am not sure how best to define reflection, but there is that case of the dog who waited by the bus stop every day for seven years, waiting for a person he was attached to but had passed away.

We obviously cannot anthropomorphize animals and expect they have the same abilities of abstract reasoning as us.

When I am away from the house for several days, the dogs and cats get upset and are clearly thinking about me. Dogs can remember people they haven't seen in years.

That seems like consciousness to me, and that was the question asked in the OP.
 
Cypress said:
I am not sure how best to define reflection, but there is that case of the dog who waited by the bus stop every day for seven years, waiting for a person he was attached to but had passed away.

We obviously cannot anthropomorphize animals and expect they have the same abilities of abstract reasoning as us.

When I am away from the house for several days, the dogs and cats get upset and are clearly thinking about me. Dogs can remember people they haven't seen in years.

That seems like consciousness to me, and that was the question asked in the OP.
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That's actually a good example: The dog remembers his master but can't reflect on the fact the master is dead. He goes by rote, not by thinking. Animals react, humans have the ability to think things through...the dumb ones not so much. LOL

I'll look for a model, but basically emotions and memory are on a lower order than "planning ahead", reflecting, considering options, etc. Emotions and memory come into play in reactions such as when my dog sees certain other dogs and reacts.

The separation anxiety thing is a good point. Let me look at that one.
 
Dutch Uncle said:
That's actually a good example: The dog remembers his master but can't reflect on the fact the master is dead. He goes by rote, not by thinking. Animals react, humans have the ability to think things through...the dumb ones not so much. LOL

I'll look for a model, but basically emotions and memory are on a lower order than "planning ahead", reflecting, considering options, etc. Emotions and memory come into play in reactions such as when my dog sees certain other dogs and reacts.

The separation anxiety thing is a good point. Let me look at that one.
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I guess I need to find a clear, concise, and consistent definition of what consciousness is.

Maybe I am thinking of sentience.
 
Cypress said:
I guess I need to find a clear, concise, and consistent definition of what consciousness is.

Maybe I am thinking of sentience.
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Sentience is a good word, but as you pointed out, some animals are sentient but still not "conscious" like humans.

TBH, I think it's a matter of degree with a tip over point at a high enough level to produce creatures that think like humans do; with aforethought. Animals just react to whatever situation presents itself based upon genetic programming and learning. BF Skinner's Religious Pigeons are an example of how this can go wrong.

Consider the Turing test. How many animals can pass it? My dog has a sense of time. There are certain cues around the house such as a daily Alexa reminder at 1630, position of the Sun in the sky and his stomach. If I hadn't gotten up to make his dinner, he let's me know it. He's reacting to hunger, not coming to me at 1400 to remind me about dinner later. No forethought.

Predators are notoriously smart for animals and can take down a human who is complacent about their time and place. That doesn't make the predator smarter, just that the human was stupid. :)
 
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