My pet theory is that most animals know they’re conscious and know they are part of one consciousness. Humans evolved an illusion that we are alone in an indiv

My pet theory is that most animals know they’re conscious and know they are part of one consciousness. Humans evolved an illusion that we are alone in an individual consciousness because it was an adaptation: the mistaken belief makes it easier for us to kill, and kill in large numbers. Which happened to work well for us. It let us kill off any humans who thought there was anything wrong with carving out a new world without regard for the cost to other creatures. Without that adaptation we never would have created civilization.