For years, humans thought they were the only creatures on Earth that could recognize themselves. But that fact is another “the Earth is flat” type assumption. Elephants, monkeys, gorillas, and dolphins have the ability to look in a mirror and recognize what they are looking at, according to a recent article in newscientist.com.
In other words, those creatures have consciousness. Their consciousness is different from human consciousness, but they are aware that they exist in their own reality. If those creatures have their own consciousness, and self-awareness then other life forms should have a consciousness that displays their self-awareness in ways that we don’t understand.
Scientists created a test that helps them identify how other life forms display their self-awareness. And the tests are paying off. A small coral fish called the cleaner wrasse whose sole purpose in life is to eat parasites off the scales of bigger fish has self-awareness. Performing this service on bigger fish does require a form of consciousness that is hard for humans to understand. The cleaner wrasse has to be aware of what it’s doing and how it is doing what it does when it is in the presence of other fish. If the cleaner wrasse picks the wrong fish, it could end up as an appetizer for the bigger fish. But the cleaner wrasse doesn’t make mistakes like that because it has the mind or the consciousness to pick the right fish to clean, according to the newscientist.com.
The news that fish have a special self-awareness that humans don’t understand is important news. The discovery of self-awareness in other life forms means humans aren’t as selectively astute as we like to think. Our consciousness is an expanded type of consciousness because we can do things that other life forms can’t do, like go in debt. But their consciousness and self-awareness are just as credible and important in their reality as our self-awareness is in our reality.
Humans are on the verge of discovering we are not alone when it comes to being consciously aware of our actions and choices. Fish make choices from the probability pool that is unique to their consciousness just like elephants, apes, whales, and dolphins. And those choices create reality for those creatures just like our choices create the reality we experience.
Scientists say all life forms are connected and that connection is consciousness. Every life form displays a different type of consciousness. And in their own way, they have the ability to express their self-awareness.
