My dogs are not conscious? |
Weirdly, some still believe that dogs are not conscious. It was common for previous scientists to believe this, and that is why they didn't mind torturing them to do scientific experiments. It makes my skin crawl just thinking about it.
I wonder what it is like to be my dogs, about what kind of conscious experience they have.
They get jostled around all the time, and I doubt they feel embarrassed and have to look at each other to see if they should feel ashamed. Instead, they look at each other to see if the other one is getting something they aren't, or to see if the other one is getting jealous of the attention so they can decide whether move away from me to avoid the wrath of nipping that will certainly come. These seem like fairly sophisticated feelings and thinking.
Someone mentioned that birds don't enjoy flying like we would if we had wings. But similarly, we don't enjoy digging ditches all day.
I think I have seen birds flying for fun in the wind once, going higher and higher and playfully diving towards the other birds playfully, like dancing.
I think the stress and anxiety of day to day survival steals away the opportunity for having fun. Animals don't seem to have a very relaxed stress-free life. So sad.
But isn't the moment by moment conscious experiencing of sense perception satisfying in its own right in some way? Like when eating tasty food, do you have to have some extra social or psychological activity going on to enjoy eating? Isn't the sheer good flavor itself enjoyable?
Maybe that's what it's like for dogs; enjoying the immediacy of the moment. But there's more: sometimes my dogs will come over to me for cuddles. They obviously thought about it in advance and planned it, remembering how fun and cuddly and cozy it is.