Why would anyone think that thought is unique to humans? Seems absurd to a frightening degree.
this post was submitted on 26 Jul 2024
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The voice in my head requires complex language and symbolism. I don’t doubt that they’re capable of thought, just like Helen Keller was capable of thought before having language, but I doubt that it’s like the “little voice” in my head.
Dogs dream, and dreams are just thoughts.
My cat has thoughts. They're usually "today I feel like biting my owner because it's a load of fun"
This video perfectly describes my cat... except the actual fur color. Because he's a snowshoe, not... whatever kind of cat species is in this video.
Thoughts, yes. Please keep in mind that thoughts are not necessarily in the form of a voice, even in humans.
I think that it's on a sliding scale. Some animals clearly have some kind of inner thought process, and clearly have their own personalities. Others not as much. I know that with cats, for instance, there are tools you can use that allow cats to communicate certain concepts to people, stings of buttons that are each linked to a discrete word. Cats can learn to string button presses together to 'say' things to their keepers. (Apparently the most common thing they ask for is clean water, so clean your cat's water daily.) That may not be evidence of "thought" in the way that you're thinking about it, but there's clearly some form of cognition going on there.
clean water
I used to have a cat who did this. He would lead me to the bathroom, jump into the tub, and then wait patiently until I turned on the bath faucet -- just a trickle!
My cat understands a "now" "later" type of situation and strings actions with it. For instance "now play later food".
Edit: I taught him buttons and those are some of the choices
How do you know other humans have thoughts? There is no way of measuring it, and there is no way to tell if someone is lying about it. You could measure brain activity. But There is no need for brain activity to be accompanied by experience. There is no law of nature that says that electrical signals are accompanied by experience or thoughts. There is also no way to tell the difference between a millimeter cube of brain from any animal. So if you believe that brain activity is represented by thoughts, then there is absolutely no way to draw an arbitrary line between humans and animals.
So i don't even think it's a question.
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