My cat does know what her tinned food looks like unopened in a pseudo
symbol processing manner. Importantly, she appears to me to exhibit an
utter dislike for looking at herself in the mirror, unless at a
distance. I've been interested in her mirror behavior, since I started
reading this thread. Try it. Is there any data on whether a cat avoids
looking directly into mirrors more than other surfaces? Notably, she
does like sprawling over my computer screen and, with her head right
over the edge, she sometimes takes an oblique interest in the mouse
pointer.
On this behavior and the last post, I'd like to examine feline mythology
and this speculation.
(1) Cats of today are the equivalent of the emerging posthuman (the
greater than human symbol is >H) , and
(2) We will become like cats and be pets of our computers which will
become like we were.
Q. To have a species-induced theological self-consciousness, of the hive
like (or dare I say it - human like) super-organism nature, is it
necessary to have a human-sized brain?
I think not, (as probably does Penrose, Pribram, et al), but the size of
our brain and body may have been useful to such a speculative feline
political economy of an earlier eon, e.g., to build houses, etc. In the
same way that the large capacity of the Internet is useful to humans, we
may well be chasing the cat's evolutionary tail.
Not comfortable with this notion? I too think this technique is unique
to our species. Alas, common sense shows me evidence to the contrary
that the domestic cat gets the better end of such an evolutionary deal.
I say, pity the poor horse and sadly see the human in peril of going the
way of the horse. All for the sake of a few pampered fat cats.
Is Man getting rid of intersubjectivity following the role model of what
Cat might have done, or is transhumanisation (>H) unique to the computer
age?
--Jim Legg http://homepages.ihug.co.nz/~income/ingrid3d.htm Man*Soul/Computer='See What You Think...'
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