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A comment on Spiders are much smarter than you think. Parent comment

Re:Spiders are much smarter than you think by s5300 on Sunday November 07, 2021 @05:42PM (#29144285)
> One could also conclude the opposite. What we perceive as concious thought or emotion is just instinct.

Pretty sure this is what doctors said as their justification for not using anesthetic on babies during medical procedures.

"Oh, they're just crying and screaming because baby, duh"

We now look back at that as being quite a barbaric practice/way of thinking.

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Re:Spiders are much smarter than you think by Talanes on Sunday November 07, 2021 @07:00PM (#29144803)
But babies don't logically reason that crying is how to express their pain, it is instinct. The error was downplaying instinctive behaviors as separate from the total consciousness. Basically equating all instinctive action to the knee reflex test: harmless reactions that our bodies happen to do, rather than the essential part of our psyche that most instincts are.
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