Nicely written editorial on the intelligence of animals

[Guest guest]

An editorial today in the NYTimes, entitled " Horton

Sees an Image " :

 

To the very short list of animals that can recognize

themselves in a mirror — i.e., humans and apes and

possibly dolphins — scientists have now added the

Asian elephant, or at least three female Asian

elephants in the Bronx Zoo. Faced with the presence of

an enormous — and rugged — full-length mirror in their

enclosure, the animals displayed clear signs of

grasping that they themselves were the origin of the

images in the glass. One elephant, named Happy, was

even able to touch a mark on her own face that was

visible only in the mirror. It is still not known

whether male elephants are as self-aware.

 

Such tests appear to mark a boundary between animals

that display some form of consciousness and those that

don’t. But what they really do is raise questions

about the value we attribute to consciousness and our

inevitably human definition of it. It is always us

setting the rules. How many tests set by elephants

could we pass?

 

Can we even pass the very simple test of allowing them

to survive in the wild? The clear implication of the

mirror test is that animals who pass it are somehow

closer to us and thus more deserving of our

protection. But as the fate of chimpanzees makes

plain, we are no more likely to save species with a

proto-human form of consciousness than animals whose

mental life bears no resemblance to our own.

 

We keep probing the animal world for signs of

intelligence — as we define it — and we’re always

surprised when we discover it. This suggests that

something is fundamentally wrong with our assumptions.

There is every reason to value other life-forms as

much for their difference from us as for their

similarity, and to act accordingly. That may be the

only intelligence test worthy of the name.