Quote Originally Posted by darth stoner
We're also animals, and a few other species have passed the self awareness test too.

"Animals which have passed the mirror test are common chimpanzees, bonobos, orangutans, dolphins, elephants, humans and possibly pigeons. Surprisingly, gorillas have not passed the test, although at least one specific gorilla, Koko, has passed the test; this is probably because gorillas consider eye contact an aggressive gesture and normally try to avoid looking each other in the face. Human children tend to fail this test until they are at least 1.5 to 2 years old [1]. Dogs, cats and 1 year old children, for example, usually react to a mirror in fear or curiosity, or simply ignore it, while birds often attack their own reflections."


Other apes have been seen using tools too. And tools are not specific to Homo Sapiens Sapiens, our ancient ancestors also used them.

Spoken language is what currently separates "them" from us, and the "consequences" of being able to manipulate language the way we do is what really makes the difference.
Interesting, never heard of this mirror test before.

I am not sure its entirely valid to assume all other species donot have highly delevoped communication rituals though. Recorded patterns of bird song has been directly compared to patterns generated by simple algorithms on a computer. This suggest deterministic (and repeatable in form) patterns that may have a complex meaning to birds, yet are completely indiscernable to any ther species. In the same way they probably have no idea what we are babbling on about either.
Staurm Reviewed by Staurm on . humankind's search for origin i am curious as to some people's opinions on this question. why are humanbeings so curious to find their origins? Rating: 5