or any species? I know that only homo sapiens can articulate his visions of 2010 or 2100 or whatever, but I’m talking more about awareness, consciousness that such a thing as the future exists. How is it that we’re sure that we’re the only species to have a conception of a future, mortality, etc.? Since squirrels save nuts to eat in future months, why is that no indication that their consciousness stops short of conceiving of a future?
A corollary of this question is: what is LIKE to have no conception of a future? At what point does this awareness arise in humans? How is this arising measured? Do we have some test that tells us that this 2-year-old has no awareness of a future but this three-year-old is starting to work it out?
Wouldn’t surprise me a bit if many species thing about more than getting laid or where they’re gonna do lunch. Problem is, until they start working on their abysmal communication skills, we’ll never know what they’re thinking.
It’s this inability to pass on any detailed information that lets many Homo sapiens suppose that there in an infinite qualitative difference between themselves and other critters.
But what circumstances led to that becoming an instinct. . .something in the dog’s past (royal dog, here) that indicated burying that bone might come in useful in the future.
I read something once along the lines of this: if you had 10 dogs in a circle, and you sequentially killed each dog, the next dogs wouldn’t be able to extrapolate, “oh, he’s going to kill me” and run away.
Whether that’s true or not, I don’t know.
Whether it sheds any light on the original questions, I don’t know.
I can prove that dogs have a concept of the future, beyond acting instinctively.
When my dog was a puppy and being house-trained, she would occasionally leave little poops around the house. Upon discovery, she would get a healthy dose of guilt and shame. After a while, I stopped finding them around. But not long after, I figured out (don’t ask how) that she was eating her poops before I came home so she wouldn’t get in trouble!!!
QED She knew there was future in which she would get in trouble and consciously acted to prevent that future. Of course she is The Smartest Dog in the World, so maybe it’s just her.
And therein lies the problem with this whole line of inquiry: we can never know what the dog was thinking (unless Berlitz finally gets around to finishing its Dog-English Dictionary).
[My WAG: she was thinking “Hmmmm. Needs a little salt.”]
Reminds me of a story on NPR a few years ago about someone developing a dog-English dictionary. I was driving along listening to this, and it was one of those earnest NPR type stories, so it took me a couple of minutes to realize Wait a second, what’s today? April 1st?
I KNEW this topic wouldn’t be taken seriously when it got migrated from “Great Questions” but I didn’t think we’d descend to “dog eating own shit” musings quite this fast.
LOL…that’s exactly what I’m saying!
And while I can’t prove that her motivation was to not get in trouble, I can say that she didn’t do it before the scolding started, and she stopped as soon s she was house-trained, so if she had some other motivation to eat her own poo, it was short-lived and happened to coincide with that time frame.
You can watch a dog anticipate future actions all the time. Ever play fetch with a dog? They watch and anticipate the future throw so much that you can fake them out. They return the ball with what I think is an indication of hope and dreams, they hope and imagine you doing the same thing again… Oh Boy, Oh Boy, throw it again! My dog can think ahead to what the indicator “Vet” holds in store. She knows it isn’t fun and responds with fear and a desire to hide.
