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Those are hardwired instincts, not a conscious reflection on the fact that in the future things might be worse. In fact they are limited to a specific behavior
by DeusExMachina 9y ago
Those are hardwired instincts, not a conscious reflection on the fact that in the future things might be worse.
In fact they are limited to a specific behavior, like storing food, and not generalized across all things that could happen.
Fighting to defend territory or feeding offspring are strategies that prove successful for the survival of the species, not tied to consciousness of the future.
For example, zebras run away from lions, but only when lions chase them. They are perfectly fine with lions sitting around if all they do is sitting. They don’t think: “at some point that lion will stand up and chase me”
- robotresearcher 9y agoHow on earth do you state all these things as facts? You are confident about the mental states of zebra? Why?
- crpatino 9y agoIf you ever had had a dog, you'd know that it has a mind of his own; probably not a full adult-human sized mind, but maybe about as smart as a toodler (and with a fair component of non-human capabilities on top of that). So, no, animals are not merely flesh robots, which is what "they just act by hardwired insticts" actually mean. That's an old fashioned 19th century idea that needs to be put down if we are ever to figure out what is precisely unique about human nature vs animal one. Geez, the whole "humans are rational animals" is a bunch of ancient greek philosophy (you know, the same guys who claimed that everything was made of fire, water, earth, air and soul). Surely we can do better, after this many millenia???