6 ms·
Do cats realise that we are not cats? Do they actually have enough brain power to digest that?
by daliusd 13y ago
Do cats realise that we are not cats? Do they actually have enough brain power to digest that?
- brazzy 13y agoHow much brain power does it take to realize that a creature that doesn't look, smell or act in any way like a cat is not a cat? How would it be different from realizing that mice and dogs are not cats?
- ddebernardy 13y agoEnough brain power to come up with the concept of "being a cat", then leading to discriminating the environment between "is a cat" and "isn't a cat". Whether cats do is anyone's guess. That said, cats probably have enough brainpower to come up with the concept of "I'm me". Just watch a cat, or a dog for that matter, looking at itself in a mirror if you need convincing. "Take care of me" and "feed me" are pretty established too.
- daliusd 13y agoYou are making assumption that cat's brain works the same as human's brain. Maybe that's good assumption but question is how good? Have you seen this TED talk http://www.ted.com/talks/jill_bolte_taylor_s_powerful_stroke_of_insight.html http://www.ted.com/talks/jill_bolte_taylor_s_powerful_stroke... ? "being a cat" is related to self-awareness. Does cat has the same self-awareness as human beings?
- daliusd 13y agoYou are making brave assumptions here, aren't you? Dogs = unfriendly cats that smell bad and look ugly, mice - edible cats that smell tasty and are small. It might look like this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HPeattKV74A http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HPeattKV74A Again that's just speculation. I would love to see scientific data here.
- TrevorJ 13y agoYou would see far more feline on feline predation if this were the case though, wouldn't you?
- headlights 13y agoIt depends on the difference between a cat-cat and cat-mouse.
- headlights 13y agoYou've renamed everything as cat. But the problem remains the same.
- daliusd 13y agoI guess that changes problem slightly. Different criterions are chosen when taking actions. E.g.: Can I eat it? No - too big. No - smells bad. Two inputs - one output. Can I mate with it? No - smells bad. No - too weak. While being human you might have much more sophisticated criterions and first criterion might be "is it human?". Most probably how it smells and how big it is will not be enough.
- stewbrew 13y agoThey realize that a dog or a mouse is not a cat, don't they.
- daliusd 13y agoI don't know. I guess they do but most probably not in the way we do it.