Re: We are Borg. Hive mind?
I have never understood it either...
Here's what I do know about it:
We have several cats. Amongst themselves they form particular "friendships." Itybitykity (our cat names might seem strange, but they are descriptive) is best friends with Fat Ralph. They generally spend nap time curled up together. Understanding each of their unique "personalities" I have a pretty good idea why they are BFFs.
One cat, Badkitty, has picked me for best bud. She sits next to me, pokes me in the face (gently) until I pay attention to her. If I ignore her, she head buttes me. When I acknowledge her presence, she rolls over for a belly rub. When I go to bed she runs in front of me and lays down between wife & I for a belly rub. When she's done, she sleeps just outside the bedroom door waiting for me to get up to go to the B-room (I'm old. I do that several times a night), then repeats the belly rub procedure. I'm pretty sure Badkitty loves me...
However, there have been times where I have spoken about animals using terms like "friendship," "personalities," "love," and have been told that, since I don't know how an animal actually "feels" (assuming they feel at all), I am anthropomorphasising (did I spell that right?
). So there is that attitude.
Then there is an experiment to find out if an animal is "self aware." The way it was done is to put a brightly colored sticker on the animal's head, then, put the animal in front of a mirror. If the animal in some way indicates that it knows the sticker it sees on the head of the animal in the mirror is on it, the scientist says "Oh! That animal can recognize itself in the mirror so it is aware of itself as an independent being, therefore it is self aware..." Not too many critters pass this test...
But I say "There is a major flaw with that experiment! Sight doesn't mean that much to most animals. If they want to find out if my dog can recognize itself, they'll need to do an experiment with smell!"
No need to bother... My dog can recognize it's own smell. Not sure I can recognize my own smell, though, unless it's a fart. If it's mine, it won't smell as bad...
But things have changed, not just amongst animal lovering weirdos like ourselves:
After 2,500 Studies, It's Time to Declare Animal Sentience Proven
And here's this:
It's possible to write the video off as the work of other animal loving weirdos, but I've reviewed some research. The evidence looks good to me, it matches my experience, and so, until given reason to do otherwise, I'll go with it...
Originally posted by Munin-Hugin
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Here's what I do know about it:
We have several cats. Amongst themselves they form particular "friendships." Itybitykity (our cat names might seem strange, but they are descriptive) is best friends with Fat Ralph. They generally spend nap time curled up together. Understanding each of their unique "personalities" I have a pretty good idea why they are BFFs.
One cat, Badkitty, has picked me for best bud. She sits next to me, pokes me in the face (gently) until I pay attention to her. If I ignore her, she head buttes me. When I acknowledge her presence, she rolls over for a belly rub. When I go to bed she runs in front of me and lays down between wife & I for a belly rub. When she's done, she sleeps just outside the bedroom door waiting for me to get up to go to the B-room (I'm old. I do that several times a night), then repeats the belly rub procedure. I'm pretty sure Badkitty loves me...
However, there have been times where I have spoken about animals using terms like "friendship," "personalities," "love," and have been told that, since I don't know how an animal actually "feels" (assuming they feel at all), I am anthropomorphasising (did I spell that right?
). So there is that attitude.Then there is an experiment to find out if an animal is "self aware." The way it was done is to put a brightly colored sticker on the animal's head, then, put the animal in front of a mirror. If the animal in some way indicates that it knows the sticker it sees on the head of the animal in the mirror is on it, the scientist says "Oh! That animal can recognize itself in the mirror so it is aware of itself as an independent being, therefore it is self aware..." Not too many critters pass this test...
But I say "There is a major flaw with that experiment! Sight doesn't mean that much to most animals. If they want to find out if my dog can recognize itself, they'll need to do an experiment with smell!"
No need to bother... My dog can recognize it's own smell. Not sure I can recognize my own smell, though, unless it's a fart. If it's mine, it won't smell as bad...
But things have changed, not just amongst animal lovering weirdos like ourselves:
After 2,500 Studies, It's Time to Declare Animal Sentience Proven
And here's this:
It's possible to write the video off as the work of other animal loving weirdos, but I've reviewed some research. The evidence looks good to me, it matches my experience, and so, until given reason to do otherwise, I'll go with it...
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