JITOTM20: Think Like An Animal
Ever met the gaze of a raccoon? Ever wondered what it's thinking? Ever wondered if the raccoon wonders what you're thinking?
In Jay's opinion, animal consciousness isn't just a curiousity; it's an important issue. We need to observe and understand the animal mind - as best we can - to ensure that we treat animals with the ethical consideration they are due. But what IS the animal mind?
Take a walk through the forest with a guileless raccoon, a passel of theiving scrub jays, and a slew of silviculturally inclined squirrels in this week's episode of Jay Ingram's Theatre of the Mind: Think Like An Animal.
Behind the Curtain
- Those clever scrub jays are the subject of a 2004 paper abstracted here
- Song of the Week: "Squirrel" by Joel Fafard
Do you have an animal consciousness anecdote to share? Pass it along to us by email. We love to hear from you.
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posted by David Newland at 1:00 PM
2 Comments:
Love the podcasts fellas. The topics are always interesting even if they go over my head. This one I followed though. Does that mean my brain is as big a squirels?
10:50 PM
Haven't listened to this one yet, but if memory serves, this is the last one for a bit. So I thought I'd give you something to think about over the summer.
Your podcast has been a fun and interesting addition to my weekly list of "must-listens" so I first want to thank you. But I also wanted to share an observation about consciousness that I have noticed both because of this podcast in particular and podcasting in general.
The great thing about podcasts is that it's radio you can rewind. Like many people, I'm sure, I do at least some of my podcast listening in the car. But when I do so, I often realize that I haven't been paying full attention to the podcast because some jerk just cut me off or traffic is getting crazy and what have you. When I "tune back in" sometimes after only a few seconds, I realize I've missed some essential bit of the dialogue. If I had been listening to broadcast radio, I'd be out of luck, but with a podcast, I can just rewind and "re-listen" to what I have missed.
But the amazing thing is that I invariably find I didn't miss as much as I though I did. Everything sounds very familiar, as if I were simply being reminded of something I already knew. But arguably, I wasn't conscious of listening to the podcast at all (being much more focussed on flipping the bird to the guy who cut me off).
So... was I conscious of the podcast even as I tuned it out, and if so, on what level? Is this an example of the broad type of consciousness you have mentioned before? Have any experiments been done where people can voluntarily recall things they have heard while being distracted by other stimuli? What's going on here?
Have a great summer guys. I Look forward to the next season.
4:06 PM
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