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Do you think animals have thoughts? Are they capable of hearing that little voice that we humans have in our heads? (self.asklemmy)

submitted 2 months ago by TheBigBrother to c/asklemmy

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What do you think?

(page 3) 34 comments

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[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 months ago

How do you know other humans have thoughts? There is no way of measuring it, and there is no way to tell if someone is lying about it. You could measure brain activity. But There is no need for brain activity to be accompanied by experience. There is no law of nature that says that electrical signals are accompanied by experience or thoughts. There is also no way to tell the difference between a millimeter cube of brain from any animal. So if you believe that brain activity is represented by thoughts, then there is absolutely no way to draw an arbitrary line between humans and animals.

So i don't even think it's a question.

[–] [email protected] -1 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

None of them have language beyond associating a small number of specific sounds or words to objects or events but I would bet my legs just above the knee down that Dolphins monologue "Squee-aww" when they spot a scuba diver. Dogs definitely daydream about you calling their name when you're away for a long time. If they couldn't in some way internalize the call then they would not remember it.

EDIT: To add onto my claim that they don't have language beyond a certain level, that's what we've been able to prove so far. We know that some of the smarter animals, such as dolphins, crows, and gorillas can understand quite a few words with daily training and even use and pass down taught language to limited capacity, but the longest experiments for complex languages with these animals have all resulted in "failure" to teach them or learn from them to the extent of being able to have conversations or form complex statements.

[–] [email protected] -2 points 2 months ago

No, they operate on instinct. Our thoughts are in our own language, their only language is instinct and body language (barks included).

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