The Theory of Selective Consciousness
There is a general assumption that is made by scientists and lay people alike. What is this assumption, well; it is the assumption that a given life form is either conscious or unconscious. Subsequently when testing for consciousness, this assumption causes a few problems. The most widely accepted test for consciousness amongst scientists is the mirror test. Essentially, a dot is placed on the subject and then a mirror is shown to the subject. If the subject starts treating it’s reflection like another subject, so going behind the mirror to look for “it” or even attacking its image, the subject will have failed. If however the subject notices the dot, then the subject has passes. How does it work, well if they are unconscious they are unable to think, so if they see there reflection they automatically respond to the image as they would another of their kind, and fail to notice that there’s something awry. However, if they are conscious, then they can think, so when they see their reflection they may start responding to it like one of their own king but then they’ll think “Hey, this guy’s doing everything I do...Heh, am I seeing my limb double...This is me, how the hell does that happen...Oh I’ve got a weird spot on me.”
It is quite an imaginative experiment, but there are some anomalies. For example, if a chicken looked at themselves in the mirror, judging from other Galliformes, it would probably peck at the mirror until it broke. However, chickens are also capable of solving problems by learning from their mistakes and the mistakes of others. For example, when a mother hen and her chicks are strolling around, and some dog or other predatory animal starts staring at them, the mother hen will call the alarm, the chicks will get into single file behind her and then they will head for safety. One day whilst observing this, I noticed that some of the chicks had gone on ahead of the others. To reach safety they had to get pass a metal gate. One of the chicks tried jumping over a bar of the gate, but failed, then decided to go under the bar like the others, and all of the chicks that came after him went under the bar. Considering that at least some amount of thinking had to be done in order to achieve what happened, why would they then fail a test designed to tell whether you can think or not.
The answer lies with the assumption that life forms are either conscious or unconscious. The answer to this paradox above is my personal theory of selective consciousness. Essentially, most of the time, a chicken would be unconscious, however; if they needed to solve a problem in order to save their life or become free, they will momentarily become conscious in order to figure out how to do it, then become unconscious again once its been done. Another option for how selective consciousness works is that they become conscious when entering a highly repetitive activity then becomes conscious when they have to change activities. If this is the case, then when a chicken looks at itself in the mirror, it would think its another chicken, which is staring at it which is a threatening sign amongst most animals, attack its image, then enter a highly repetitive rhythm of pecking, become unconscious since it’s a repetitive activity then as a result, never figure out that that reflection was them self.
This is simply a hypothesis, to become a theory it would need evidence from experiments. Recently an improved test for consciousness has come about, based around studies of people’s brain activity when awake and asleep. Essentially, when conscious, all the different parts of your brain are activated, with even parts of the Brain becoming active without being touched by the area of activity. When unconscious, the activity remains localised within an area of the brain. This has been observed by placing censors on peoples head, giving them tiny electric shocks in areas of the head, then the censors measure and map out how that electricity travels. As a way of looking for selective consciousness in chickens or other animals, you would do the same experiment, but rather than measuring when asleep or awake, you’d measure whilst going around pecking and similar low maintenance activities and when their doing a problem solving activity.
I am sure that selective consciousness is a valid hypothesis.