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Of course it could. What is the difference between the fear felt from an oncoming bus vs flinching at someone popping out and saying "boo"? It's our ability to
by shannifin 5y ago
Of course it could. What is the difference between the fear felt from an oncoming bus vs flinching at someone popping out and saying "boo"? It's our ability to think about the meaningfulness of the stimulus. We know the bus could kill us (or at least deliver tremendous pain), whereas the scare from a prank is just a sort of autoresponse from our sympathetic nervous system; we jump before we're even conscious as to why our body is reacting. (We may even enjoy the autoresponse and purposefully seek out jump scares.)
So, for a squirrel, perhaps it's like our unconscious sympathetic nervous system autoresponse, but all the time.
- foxes 5y agoI definitely think dogs, for example, have the capacity to reflect on it to a extent. You can play games with dogs, they seek it out. I believe there is evidence they can plan. I think they can observe you and then adjust themselves accordingly. If you are angry they can be sad or cautious. If you look sad they can comfort. But they also seem to possess their own independent moods. Planning and adapting to stimulus seems like consciousness to me. I think in Humans language can actually be a big component of that feedback, you can structure your thoughts and reason with it. An internal dialogue. But I am not sure it is entirely necessary.