Elephants pass the self awareness mirror test

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this is very interesting. they also have cemetaries.
isn't it funny that we're killing all the smartest animals in the world?Edited by Adminnemooseus, : Whited out off-topic politically related material. Do not respond to that material (unless you're looking for a suspension).

we just can't stand the competition, apparently.abe:
funny, and at the same time, really quite saddeningEdited by kuresu, : No reason given.

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We're not just killing the smart animal; we're killing just about every animal we can kill. It just happens that the smart animal are also some of the animal that can't reproduce fast enough to replace lost members. For example, just about every carnivore in the great american west go after the salmon. Yet they are not in any danger of being put on the endangered species list. Same thing homosapien sapiens. If we nuke every homosapien population center on earth tomorrow, we still wouldn't be able to wipe out this parasitic organism.

five nukes would destroy the world. There would actually be no life left on Earth. There would be no earth. Edited by AdminPD, : Warning

Before we drift too far down the river, lets get back to the elephants.

Yeah ive always thought that elephants are smart. They can paint,communicate over miles, and they have big brains. But i dont see how being able to recognize yourself in a mirror makes you smart?

If you put a camera in front of a mirror and trigger the shutter so that it gets an 'imprint' of itself, either as a latent image on film or as a charge distribution on a digital camera's memory, can it be said that the camera is self aware? If not, how does it differ from the elephant or a (non-blind) human?

In the 50's dozens of nukes were tested by American elephants. The Soviet elephants also tested many nukes. Even though many elephants around the world, including the elephants that performed the tests, suffered radiation sickness from these nuclear tests, the elephants still live today.It would actually take many thousands of nukes to kill off all the elephants and other living creatures on Earth. Edited by gasby, : No reason given.Edited by gasby, : No reason given.Edited by AdminPD, : Warning

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The idea isn't that the brain is recieving the image that the elephant sees, it's how the elephant's brain interprets what it's seeing. As the article says, the elephant feels for the spot that it can't see without use of the mirror. So, while your camera couldn't tell you it's seeing itself, an elephant could.If you were being sarcastic, disregard this.Edited by Phalanx, : Edited for misspelling

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And the Ignorant shall fall to the Squirrels - Chip 2:54

Anyone who has followed my posts knows that I am never sarcastic (unless this statement is itself sarcastic).I am curious about what are the mechanisms of self awareness and to what extent these can be emulated by machines. The camera taking its some sarcasown picture is perhaps one very modest start at exploring this question. Past the optical sensor and the storage device, it will need some sort of 'visual cortex' using pattern recognition to determine that that is itself (or something very similar) that it is taking a picture of. That seems to be the hardest part, since once it 'recognizes' itself in the image, any number of reactive behaviors can be programmed into it. In fact, auto focus and auto exposure (and even motion compensation), which are present in most currently available cameras, can be considered to be complex adaptive behaviors.But there us liberal scientist types go again, trying to blur the distinctions that make us human. (But, of course, you have no way of knowing if I am actually a human or just a sarcasmotron.)Regards, AnInGeEdited by AnswersInGenitals, : No reason given.

I suppose at that point, though, you're looking at nothing more than an automaton. I don't think the camera could be self aware if it lacks a self to begin with.

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And the Ignorant shall fall to the Squirrels - Chip 2:54

But that's the whole point. How do we know that elephants, chimps, and we are something more than 'automatons? What is 'self' if not just a word for those brain functions that we are not consiously aware of? Can you add any more difinitive discription to this 'self' that you seem to think distinguishes us from mechanical entities that display the same behavioral responses that we do? Please delay bringing up free will as long as possible. That just opens up a new can of worms that are being digested in a couple of other threads.

I suppose that describing 'self' is like describing 'life' it's ethereal, at best. I suppose that the only way to define self is the vaguest of definitions available: As I said, this definition is nothing more than a guideline, and probably rife with holes, but, it seems work, for me at least.

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And the Ignorant shall fall to the Squirrels - Chip 2:54

i meant 5 nukes blowing up at the same time would destroy the Earth Edited by AdminPD, : Warning