17th June 2003, 11:33 AM
Darunia, you miss my point. Sure on the surface it seems like a perfect way to tell, but really think about it. All it seems to be to me is a method of determining intelligence. I think an animal may very well be self aware and yet be too stupid to realize that a mirror is just a reflection. The two aren't totally dependent on each other. An animal may very well have thought about it's purpose in the world, or thought of itself as it's own being seperate from the world, and yet is too stupid to recognize that every movement that thing in the mirror is making is the same as it's own movement. I see no reason to think that an animal MUST be smart enough to recognize itself in a mirror in order to be self aware.
"On two occasions, I have been asked [by members of Parliament], 'Pray, Mr. Babbage, if you put into the machine wrong figures, will the right answers come out?' I am not able to rightly apprehend the kind of confusion of ideas that could provoke such a question." ~ Charles Babbage (1791-1871)