New Study Finds Insects May Have Basic Consciousness

a reply to: FamCore

According to Thomas Campbell, author of the book, "My Big Toe", and a proponent of the "Simulated Universe Hypothesis", all life forms MUST have consciousness in order to create (and interact with) the environment around them... at least that is how I understand it from some of the lectures I've watched.

Thomas Campbell, Physicist, Author, and Expert on Consciousness

originally posted by: Nikola014
a reply to: intrptr

Can you imagine one group of bees firing honey against another group of bees, for more honey?

It's never going to happen, because unlike human beings, animals are not stupid.

How about army ants?

The leaders in this field of research overwhelmingly support a physical model of consciousness. Thus, it would seem impossible for anything that has any sort of feedback with its environment would not be conscious. Protozoa, trees, bugs, fish, etc, etc, etc.

If you think killing a bug is ok because it doesn't feel it, that is most probably incorrect. A bug wants to live just like you and I. It tries to live. DOes things to actively stay alive.

I can only hope that such studies will provide us with a way to communicate with these bugs. I want to be able to make these ants understand that I do NOT want to share my house with them. I've resorted to chemical warfare to try to drive them from my home. Non-lethal barrier methods were not effective. The application of ground-up chrysanthemum blooms has greatly reduced their numbers. I've slaughtered thousands of them over the past few months. They are thieves and I can't abide thieves in my house.

I catch and display insects as a hobby. I have watched many die in a jar off ethyl acetate. I can tell you unequivocally, yes they do.

While you watch them die they struggle in ways that suggest they know that they are about to die. It is fascinating. I try to only catch sick or dyeing insects now and put them out of their misery. Healthy ones go free. Well, unless they are really rare.

Anyway. I sell the displays at a local shop in Tacoma. Stop by some time and check them out.

Wunderkammer, curiosity Shoppe.

originally posted by: Nikola014
a reply to: intrptr

Can you imagine one group of bees firing honey against another group of bees, for more honey?

It's never going to happen, because unlike human beings, animals are not stupid.

Dont be stupid they didnt destroy the other nest for honey but because the other nest had WMD's

Remember these bugs?
Only we can stop this future by keeping ourselves armed.

a reply to: Nikola014

I hate to be a nitpicker but bees go to war. total war too, except the males, which wait for a mating event which happens after a war.
bee wars

You will have to forgive science... science is a little slow and retarded. It can't help it, it was born that way.

Tell me these guys don't know what they're doing......

www.youtube.com...

a reply to: olaru12

woah! that's like a re-imagining of the 1995 movie Mosquito! Very disturbing

originally posted by: Nikola014
a reply to: intrptr

Can you imagine one group of bees firing honey against another group of bees, for more honey?

It's never going to happen, because unlike human beings, animals are not stupid.

This is just silly. There are numerous examples of members of the animal kingdom going to war against each other, sometimes just to get MORE

a reply to: FamCore

I've had a long-held idea that everything with brain cells has consciousness. Like they say, consciousness isn't synonymous with sentience. That aspect seems to me like a greyscale pyramid with primates being higher up than, say, dogs or cattle. Birds and fishes would be further down than us and insects lower than that whilst still being above microbial critters. Consciousness or not, these creatures will be mechanical in their activities.



There's a video somewhere of a smart spider (yeah not an insect) and an upright wire, maze-like object. There's a food source high on the puzzle and the spider has several routes to choose from. The spider takes the shortest route which suggested some level of calculation and pre-planning. Not saying 'sentience' at all, but some dim state of consciousness. The study that went alongside the video was about neurons and I'll post it if it's easy to find. Iirc predators have more neurons.

ETA - Can't find the video, it was circa 2012-1013. However there's a very recent study about the proven ability of jumping spiders to navigate obstacle courses.

a reply to: FamCore

no kidding

a reply to: FamCore

I can just hear the inevitable chant from the hard core hippy's.

"Cockroach Rights Now"

a reply to: Nikola014

Humans are animals.

originally posted by: BrokedownChevy
a reply to: Nikola014

Humans are animals.

Most of them maybe. But the older I get, the more people I meet, the more my interest grows in listening to those folks who claim that some posing as humans are actually hybrids---some bred with reptiles, some with insects. It's the only logical explanation I've been offered to explain some of the behavior of beings that call themselves human.

Does anyone ever get an inner feeling that a fly or bug is a deceased relative or friend who was close to you? Like when it lands on your hand or forearm, and no matter how much you swat it away, it comes back to land in the same spot and sit there?

a reply to: carewemust

My grandma rarely moves from her chair, but no one notices her. Fly on the wall.

most humans are so stupid.
why does it take a scientist to tell them to have empathy?
and they still dont get it.