this post was submitted on 07 Apr 2024
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[–] yogthos@lemmy.ml 8 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Right, if an animal passes the test that's a strong indication of self awareness, but if it doesn't then consciousness cannot be ruled out. I would imagine most animals are self aware at least on some level because being able to model oneself within your environment is a useful property. Any organism with a relatively sophisticated internal model would naturally have itself as part of its model.