Evolution: Is there any survival value for human consciousness?

Perpetual Student said:
Evidence?
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Hmm I'll look for some, but it's common knowledge that corvids have an intensely high long term memory because they save things in places (not always food either) throughout their life.

Specifically, the Clark's Nutcracker remembers its caches of seed that it stores, and when I say caches I'm talking the tens of thousands

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clark's_Nutcracker


Most all corvids are like this.

EDIT:

Googled "Corvid Memory" and this was second to top o' the list http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2006/10/061012094818.htm
 
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Lowpro said:
Hmm I'll look for some, but it's common knowledge that corvids have an intensely high long term memory because they save things in places (not always food either) throughout their life.

Specifically, the Clark's Nutcracker remembers its caches of seed that it stores, and when I say caches I'm talking the tens of thousands

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clark's_Nutcracker


Most all corvids are like this.

EDIT:

Googled "Corvid Memory" and this was second to top o' the list http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2006/10/061012094818.htm
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That's interesting stuff, thanks. I wonder how much actual memory is involved and how much is merely the result of strategic testing of likely places for storing seed.
In any case, I don't know why this very narrow behavior would qualify as exceeding "human memory capacity" which is capable of vastly richer kinds memory.
 
B/c we forget where we set our keys half the time, and then there are these birdbrained corvids that keep track of our keys they snatched away 20+ years ago that went to that new car your parents bought you when you turned 16 :D
 
Lowpro said:
B/c we forget where we set our keys half the time, and then there are these birdbrained corvids that keep track of our keys they snatched away 20+ years ago that went to that new car your parents bought you when you turned 16 :D
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I remain sceptical.
 
Hehe, well that's all fine, but if you want to, take the time to read up on Corvids. They're just some of the most fascinating birds

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corvidae

And yes, they will take objects, not necessarily food, and stow them away and they DO remember where they stow them.

Some corvids also use tools and there were a large flock of corvids that would "fish" using bread crumbs to lure fish to the surface then eat them.
 
Beerina said:
FYI, you can download Blindsight by Peter Watts, a pretty good Sci-Fi story regarding consciousness, or the lack thereof, in intelligent species. This was a Hugo nominee, BTW.

He's put all his stories for free download by eReader, though you may have to go through eReader app Aldiko to get at it, IIRC.
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I'm reading this. There may be some interesting ideas to come, but so far, vampires...WTF?
 
Soapy Sam said:
I wonder how self-aware someone is who completely lacks language.

So far as I'm aware, I do all my thinking in words.
Before I learned language , I have no idea how I thought, if I did at all.
I'm sitting here trying to think without using words and failing totally.


To what extent is self awareness just a result of using language?
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Sorry to comment on an old post, but I really wondered how anybody could think that thoughts are connected to language. I think everybody has tried to lack a word for a concept or experience, and the fact that we can think of something for which we do not have words, seems to me to show conclusively that thoughts are disconnected from language.

In fact, since I became aware of this in my youth, I have noticed that most thoughts are wordless, except when I become aware of having the thoughts. This is particularly evident when going through memories: the memories can rush through my consciousness at a speed much faster than I could ever describe them with words, and indeed some of the memories are difficult to express in words at all.
 
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