Re:Scientists Are Rethinking Animal Cognition
by hannasanarion on Wednesday February 13, 2019 @09:16PM
(#19159121)
Panpsychism is pretty clearly not true even in animals. Many insect minds seem to act like finite state machines, and some can even be forced into an infinite loop, like the golden digger wasp, which will repeat the same three actions forever if you move its prey as it checks its nest for invaders: https://youtu.be/YNvi_j2z96w
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Re:Scientists Are Rethinking Animal Cognition
by nikkwong on Wednesday February 13, 2019 @09:35PM
(#19159201)
Haha this is so interesting. Is this a phenomenology that has been studied or has been classified? I assume the wasp will continue infinitely, at least, until some other stimuli takes greater precedence, like getting tired for example.
I don't know if I personally believe this is a good argument against panpsychism. The wasp may have a fractionally sized working memory in comparison to ours, yet still be conscious. I find it unlikely that panpsychism is realistic; rocks don't have nervous systems, for example, so the likelihood of them having the sensory peripherals necessary for creating experiences is unlikely in my perspective. As far as the wasp goes, I'm probably agnostic as to the answer to that.
Re:Scientists Are Rethinking Animal Cognition
by __MatrixMan__ on Thursday February 14, 2019 @12:57AM
(#19159910)
If the panpsychist believes that a rock experiences consciousness, then I doubt a particularly predictable insect would be especially persuasive against his position.