Monday, July 04, 2005
Octopus Suicides
Today is the 4th of July, so I did not have to go to work today. However, I ended up drawing the short straw and spening the day on call in case Swift detected a gamma-ray burst. That means that I am tied to my laptop and internet connection. To pass the time I did some research on octopuses. One of the more interesting things that I found is an article about the apparent suicides of some animals.
It sometimes bothers me when people assume that animals, by definition, can not be conscious. No one really know what consciousness is, so it seems a bit arrogant to say that it is a purely human phenomenon. Probably the best approach is to say that animal consciousness is simply not understood.
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I've always belonged to the school of thought that animals are smarter than we think. It's always fascinating to contemplate what is going on in their brain and I've also wondered about the impact of aging has on an animal's brain. Is it possible for them to become senile?
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