this post was submitted on 20 Apr 2024
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Far more animals than previously thought likely have consciousness, top scientists say in a new declaration — including fish, lobsters and octopus.

Bees play by rolling wooden balls — apparently for fun. The cleaner wrasse fish appears to recognize its own visage in an underwater mirror. Octopuses seem to react to anesthetic drugs and will avoid settings where they likely experienced past pain. 

All three of these discoveries came in the last five years — indications that the more scientists test animals, the more they find that many species may have inner lives and be sentient. A surprising range of creatures have shown evidence of conscious thought or experience, including insects, fish and some crustaceans. 

That has prompted a group of top researchers on animal cognition to publish a new pronouncement that they hope will transform how scientists and society view — and care — for animals. 

Nearly 40 researchers signed “The New York Declaration on Animal Consciousness,” which was first presented at a conference at New York University on Friday morning. It marks a pivotal moment, as a flood of research on animal cognition collides with debates over how various species ought to be treated.

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[–] [email protected] 18 points 7 months ago (1 children)

In the 17th century, the French philosopher René Descartes argued that animals were merely “material automata” — lacking souls or consciousness.

I believe we're all "material automata." The mistake isn't thinking animals are more primitive than they are, but thinking we are more sophisticated than we are. We're nothing special.

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[–] [email protected] 37 points 7 months ago (2 children)

This is self evident to any animal lover

[–] [email protected] 17 points 7 months ago

It's self evident to anyone not plagued by speciesism, regardless of their feelings about animals; I don't think we ought to allow that much latitude to opt-out of the obvious moral consequences of this truth.

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[–] [email protected] 58 points 7 months ago (1 children)

What was obvious to most of us as kids (and what was attempted to be beaten out of us as kids) is now being accepted by scientists. Love it.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 7 months ago (1 children)

Right, I had no idea scientists were trying to say these animals weren't sentient. Stupid scientists.

[–] [email protected] 16 points 7 months ago

It's not really that they all thought they didn't, it's that there was a lack of evidence to declare it to likely be true. Better testing methodology to exclude other possible explanations have contributed.

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