[MD] Collective intelligence

[ian glendinning]

Platt, Arlo

[Platt]
My cat has a self, a very individual, unique self. You don't have to be human
to be a self. A dog's response to a fire is not DQ; it's a static biological
pattern.

[Arlo]
I have no idea how you reconcile those two statements. You cat has no concept
of "self", it responds only biologically. It has no culture, and therefore it
does not think, and therefore it has no "I am".

You Platt (a human so far as we can tell) see that your cat has a
self, "a personality" but there is evidence (in antelope) that Arlo is
right, in that animals themselves appear to have no useful conception
of their own self.

Aaah but language, there's the rub ... for another day maybe.

Ian