Many people have wondered whether animals have any consciousness.When your dog wags his tail is he really feeling happy or is he just like robot with no feelings at all?
It appears though that animals , all of them, lack the parts of the brain that have been found to be related to consciousness in humans.For instanse our eyes are conected mainly to two parts of the brain one of which when damaged causes you to lose your vision but the other part(sorry I cant remember the names) if in tact leaves you with blind sight.That is you cant see anything but if asked to point to moving objects you can still follow with your hand.
The dog only has the blind sight part.Its more complecated than this but in general animals don't have the relevant parts for consciousness.But do in fact all humans, or are we conscious to the same degree?
For example some people can not recognise pitch, they are tone deaf.Some are colour blind.But are there other more complex abnormalities that have gone unrecognised?Are some people more robotic than others?Maybe mass murderers and others have a lack the guilt feelings that we have that stop us from doing harmful things to others?Or some people are held in more rigid control by their bodies desires?
Edited by - sleepy on 4 August 2002 11:13:37