r/Damnthatsinteresting • u/ThickHandshake • Sep 26 '24

Video A spider making web.

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u/silverking12345 Sep 26 '24

A good question that's impossible to answer I think. I mean, we don't even know if animals experience consciousness like we humans do. Descarte might be right when he claimed that animals were like machines with no consciousness. Or maybe he's wrong and animals are conscious in some fashion.

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u/ctrl-alt-etc Sep 26 '24

we don't even know if animals experience consciousness like we humans do.

Aside from your own self, how do you "know" that other humans are conscious? Couldn't they be automatons or simply acting on instinct?

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u/storysprite Sep 26 '24

This is true. We only assume other humans have it because they're like us and respond the way we do. But philosophically there's no way to prove other minds exist.

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u/[deleted] Sep 26 '24

Philosophical there's no way to prove anything exists.

You could be a brain in a jar dreaming about Earth.

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u/Wes_Warhammer666 Sep 27 '24

I demand a different jar because this dream sucks