Having just completed a course in which this was one of the major topics of discussion I feel I can perhaps help to clear a few things up. Generally we consider

Having just completed a course in which this was one of the major topics of discussion I feel I can perhaps help to clear a few things up. Generally we consider the mark test to signify self awareness. What's important in the test is that in order to past the animal must realize that the creature is them. Human's have trouble seeing what a jump this is since it's very easy for us. The example of robots, while probably more interesting to the members of this board is different in that these robots were instructed how to recognize themselves by humans that know they exist. They didn't have to make the jump of the concept of self by themselves. Unfortunately as is characteristic of softer sciences I really can't make this distinction any harder so take it or leave it. An the other hand 5 magpies is a pretty pathetic sample size. Even picture perfect results have a 1/32 chance of occurring with random behaviour. I think we can rest assured that the next article on this topic will not include Magpies in its list of previous successes.