{"version":"1.0","provider_name":"RENATURED","provider_url":"https:\/\/o-matic.com\/blog","author_name":"Marina","author_url":"https:\/\/o-matic.com\/blog\/blog\/author\/admin\/","title":"It's official! Animals *DO* have consciousness.","html":"Prominent Scientists Sign Declaration that Animals have Conscious Awareness, Just Like Us<\/strong><\/a>\r\nGeorge Dvorsky<\/a>, IO9, Aug 25, 2012<\/span>\r\n
An international group of prominent scientists has signed The Cambridge Declaration of Consciousness<\/a> in which they are proclaiming their support for the idea that animals are conscious and aware to the degree that humans are \u2014 a list of animals that includes all mammals, birds, and even the octopus.\r\n\r\nRead More<\/a><\/blockquote>\r\nAdd'l essay: Octopuses Gain Consciousness According to Scientists Declaration<\/a>, Katherine Harmon<\/a>, Scientific American,<\/a> August 21, 2012\r\n
\u201cThe weight of evidence indicates that humans are not unique in possessing the neurological substrates that generate consciousness,\u201d the scientists wrote. \u201cNon-human animals, including all mammals and birds, and many other creatures, including octopuses, also possess these neurological substrates.\u201d\r\n\r\nThe octopus is the only invertebrate to get a shout-out at all. And plenty of research has been accumulated to back up this assertion. A 2009 study<\/a> showed that some octopuses collect coconut shells to use as portable shelters\u2014an example of tool use, according to the researchers. Other research has documented sophisticated spatial navigation and memory<\/a>. Anecdotal reports from researchers, such as Jennifer Mather, describe watching octopuses in the wild make errands to collect just the right number of rocks to narrow the opening to a desired den. And laboratory experiments show a distinct change in behavior when octopuses are kept in tanks that do not have enough enrichment objects to keep them stimulated.<\/blockquote>\r\nWhat about Humboldt squid? What about Deleuzian pack-conciousness?","type":"rich"}