Another long-standing piece of bullshit to topple over in the behavioural/psychological sciences, as the neurological/biological approach continues to progress, is the idea that self-awareness is a very special trait in animal life, more so than general awareness itself. The convention has even become to label self-awareness as the exclusive definition of what "consciousness" means, much to confusion of everyone not familiar with foolish jargon. Of course, to be aware at all necessitates an awareness of self, for what is our experience of existence but the experience of being from our own, and necessarily, personal point of view. Even the field of human growth and development shows how their more basic baby minds are so very self-centered early on. As the spark of awareness generates in the womb, you are you first and foremost, as there is no one else.
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Anonymous2012-01-27 0:09
The mirror test for self-awareness, as the dogma would have it, has been purported valid without critical evaluation to decades of undergraduate students since 1970 or so. The idea is, if you put a red dot or some such on the head of a being, show it a mirror, and if it reaches on its own head for the dot, then the self-awareness has been demonstrated, and the logical fallacy that followed (at least by implication) was that if the being did not reach for the dot, then self-awareness has been ruled out. Rather, what really is demonstrated by the mirror test is:
1)the being is capable of understanding what a reflection is
2)the being is capable of knowing what the being itself would look like in a reflection
3)the being gives a shit about dots on its head and is inclined to reach for it.
Many beings in studies did not reach for the dot, but merely froze. In that instance, by the dogma, the being is judged unaware of self. More likely, the being is just freaked the fuck out. Imagine if you were taken into a lab by some species far more advanced than us. Maybe a red dot was put on your head. Then, a platform or some such was placed a few feet in front of you. Then, you see what appears to you as a three dimensional exact copy of you in space, not on a screen but right there in space, aping your exact movements in front you, just as big as you are, looking into your eyes when you look into "his" eyes. What the fuck. I wouldn't reach for the dot. I'd wonder what the fuck is going on? Did these bitches clone me or what the fuck? I don't know about whatever 3-D analogue of mirrors these advanced people have -- it looks like a fuckin' guy there and I don't like how he looks either. Fancy that.
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Anonymous2012-01-27 0:22
Other considerations are how other beings react to a purely visual test. For instance, does your reflection also smell like you?
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Anonymous2012-01-27 0:33
priceless comment at sci. am.
After reading this article through a couple of times, because something seemed out of place, I realized that it didn't seem like self-awareness was being tested, but vanity. Females are more vain than males and I can only imagine, since it wasn't tested, that more females passed the mark test than males. This doesn't mean that males are less self-aware than females...it probably means that we are less vain.