RICK OGDEN I-dialogs with Jacob Ghitis on
* Chicken Soul *
Long ago in the east, a teacher, famous for deep wisdom and having a kind
heart, gave two chickens, one each, to two students, and said, "Take your
chicken where no one will see, and kill it for tonight's dinner." The first
student knew of a secluded area behind a building. He took the chicken
there and killed it. The second student was gone for hours. The whole
community got alarmed, for this student was thought to be the teacher's most
dedicated learner. Finally, the student returned with the chicken still
alive. He came to the teacher and said, "Everywhere I go, the chicken
sees."
Ask yourself, Jacob:
1. Do I think that consciousness is different for animals than for humans?
1). Rick, you are referring to self- and other- consciousness. They are emergents at a level above awareness, being meta-thinking properties. Humans are able to be aware that they are aware, while other animals are just aware. Since these concepts are still not yet anatomically defined, it is not possible to find out if dolphins and chimpanzees enjoy some degree of meta-thinking.
However, it should be understood that every species undergoes evolutionary
changes, and that such changes usually begin with just one individual that suffered a peculiar "private" inheritable mutation. The collectivization of that mutation depends on breeding. Obviously, this is more difficult in non-inbreeding large populations. Humans are therefore not good subjects for collective evolutionary changes.
It will take a catastrophe of biblical Noah extent --with a return to incest, as in the case of Lot's daughters-- to permit the evolution to H. emeritus.
But individuals, humans and others, keep developing mutations that surprise us. A given animal may behave in an amazing way. I had a chicken that picked at my arm when I sat to eat, and ate almost everything I offered except corn, milk being a favorite. It also ran like crazy to the door when the bell rang. Out of dozens of cats I've known, two behaved as my personal friends. A kitten suddenly appeared at my door, accepted the name I gave her, and behaved as a loving daughter, perched on my shoulder wherever I took her.
2. When I have an awareness of an emotion, is my perception of that emotion
somehow "more refined", "better", or "more subtle?" Am I better at being
aware of fear and desires than animals, or, instead, do I just have
different kinds, or more abstractly complex fears and desires?
2). D-SP eschews judgmental expressions. One is always aware of emotions, but not necessarily conscious of them at the meta-thinking level. Pleasant emotions are perhaps better just enjoyed, while one might benefit from becoming fully conscious of the unpleasant ones them, for they become less overwhelming, allowing for better reasoning and actions. When I discovered that anger is an expression of the personal sense of injustice, I continued acting angry, with little accompanying damaging autonomic-nerve manifestations.
3. Do I think that a chicken actually has consciousness? How smart does an
animal have to be before it is "someone?" Do I think that ANY animal has
consciousness to a significant degree? How do I explain the expressions on
the faces of dogs and monkeys or the body language of cats?
3). The disciple in your story attributed self-consciousness to the chicken. Once I saw a cat I knew from a neighbor, after being absent for one year. It looked at me, and suddenly I saw a belated expression of surprised recognition. I had to give away a dog, and when I visited him after several months, his behavior was tinged with more than just canine behavior. I know of a dolphin that took the initiative for solving a problematic situation it had been watching for some minutes.
One might as well ask if mentally underdeveloped humans are self- and other- conscious.
4. If an animal has a language for emotional expression, does that affect
whether I grant it "consciousness status."?
4). Even humans express emotions without being self-conscious. Once upon a time, a horse I was riding on started trembling. I looked down for the snake, and pulled out my revolver. My reactions were as instinctive as the horse's: none was meta-thinking.
5. Is ANY consciousness so precious that I do not want to destroy a "vessel"
of it? Or, do I think that there has to be a certain amount of
consciousness present before I start to "think twice about killing an
animal?" What is the difference between swatting a mosquito and drowning a
porpoise in a tuna net?
5). Personally, I do not eschew destroying a dangerous creature disregarding its degree of consciousness, when such act is what I consider the best or only alternative. Thus, I'm not strictly guided by axiologic-deontic principles, as explained in LINGUISTIC COMMUNICATION. But, when I become extremely conscious that I'm eating chicken or meat, I lose my appetite; also, I do not shoot at animals or catch fish: These are idiosyncratic behaviors.
6. How much consciousness do I think an entity has to have before it is alive? Aware? Has a soul?
6). Alive is a biological definition. A plant and a virus are alive. Soul is the loose term for memories stored in neurons, which determine the self.
Awareness is determined by the senses, even by just the sense of touch, as long as there is a brain. There is evidence of human's capacity to be influenced by pheromones impinging on the vomeronasal organ. If true, then pheromone detection is a sixth sense, explaining sexual attraction and arousing and perhaps "free-floating" undefined positive or negative feelings.
7. Can I increase consciousness? If a fantastic physician time-travels back
from the year 2999 to today and magically treats me with "medicines" that
increase my senses a thousand fold, so that I had eyesight better than an
eagle, hearing better than a bat, a sense of taste better than a thousand
French chefs, a more sensitive nose than a bloodhound, and a sense of touch
better than a pickpocket, would I be more conscious or would I just have
more data to be conscious of while I was using the same awareness I
presently have?
7). You would become a sort of demigod, as long as your brain developed in tandem, for otherwise you would become psychotic. To increase consciousness
one has to learn and understand, which is an important ongoing vicarious experience. But live experiences are the flame that welds all memories into a vibrant consciousness. Adventures and danger are salt, pepper and exotic components of the consciousness menu.
8. If they ever build a perfect robot that looks human, acts human, and can
fool other humans that it is human, would the robot be conscious?
8). Without being conscious he could not act as a human.
