3 ms·

I am not entirely prepared to accept that koalas have small mammalian minds

• steve_adams_86 4y ago
  I realized recently there’s no evidence that they don’t, but a wealth of evidence that they do. I watch animals very closely now and I see more all the time that they are just like me in most ways. I suppose I used to watch them as a person who eats them, and my comfort with doing so depended on not seeing them as conscious creatures like me. Now that I don’t eat them, it’s as though there are more similarities than there are differences. I suspect if animals could speak, we’d realize they’re remarkably similar to us. This probably sounds ridiculous to many people, and would have to me once too. A key part of this is not that I’m elevating animals’ conscience to that of humans so much as lowering humans’. We tend to think we’re exceptional, but I think our exception is probably just intelligence. The rest, I don’t know, I suspect we’re all very much alike.
  • ilkke 4y ago
    Apologies, I should have made my comment clear instead of trying to be witty - what I meant was that Koalas are marsupials, not mammals. That said, I agree with what you are saying. We tend to assume a bigger than likely distance between us and other animals.
    • steve_adams_86 4y ago
      Ha, I completely overlooked that they’re marsupials, too. Now I suppose neither of us are prepared to accept it.