[frankinstien]

Here's a very interesting video of a animatronic gorilla in the wild with other silver back gorillas:

[infurl]

That was fascinating. I can think of so many ways that it could have gone badly wrong so I'm glad it worked. No apes were harmed etc. Incidentally, I wonder if animals experience an uncanny valley effect. In this case they didn't appear to.

[LOCKSUIT]

"blink"

Magnificent!!

Where's Part 2?

Eum...
apparently the channel is full of just them

The penguin one,

[8pla.net]

Michio Kaku claims chimps are self aware. 
For example, dogs are not, Michio says, they think
people are just dogs too, like they are.
Chimps, on the other hand, are aware that people,
are not chimps.

[frankinstien]

Michio Kaku claims chimps are self aware. 
For example, dogs are not, Michio says, they think
people are just dogs too, like they are.
Chimps, on the other hand, are aware that people,
are not chimps.

Dogs behave differently with humans than they do with other dogs, so I would say that Michio Kaku is wrong...

[infurl]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mirror_test

Chimpanzees are one of the few animal species which pass the mirror self-recognition test. Dogs are one of the many species which do not. However dogs primarily use their sense of smell for identification so a few years ago researchers tried to formulate self-recognition experiments that employed smell. The results were inconclusive.

I don't know about any experiments to find out if dogs think people are other dogs or something different. I do know from decades of experience with my own wonderful dogs that if you want to connect with a dog you need to behave like a dog. For example, on meeting a dog for the first time, you should present the back of your hand so it can smell you. You should not smile at a strange dog because baring your teeth is perceived as an act of aggression.

To discipline a dog you should tap it on the nose, the same as a mother dog would a puppy. To dominate a dog you have to physically hold it down on the ground until it accepts your authority over it and recognizes you as the alpha dog; if you don't, as it gets older it will try to dominate you instead. Each of the human members of the household may have to do that too so the dog knows it's position in the hierarchy; if you don't establish authority at the appropriate time, the dog is likely to become confused and acquire undesirable behaviours.

[Freddy]

When you call a dog by it's name it will look at you. Is that not enough to show self awareness?

I think dogs are self aware as do I many other animals if not all.

[8pla.net]

When infurl mentioned, "recognizes you as the alpha dog"
that reminded me, the term "alpha dog" was also used by Michio.

I probably, shouldn't have left that out, except, my comments were
more influenced by the self awareness of primates, which I think
the robotic ape illustrated quite well.

Yet, dogs recogonizing their owners as a member of their pack,
to me at least, is group awareness that may explain, how dogs
became man's ( and woman's ) best friend.

[8pla.net]

When you call a dog by it's name it will look at you. Is that not enough to show self awareness?.

Good question, Freddy.  Apparently, Egyptian fruit bats, are mammals that address each other as individuals.  Maybe we can use machine learning to learn more about dogs.

Researchers “Translate” Bat Talk. Turns Out, They Argue—A Lot
A machine learning algorithm helped decode the squeaks Egyptian fruit bats make

Link included:
https://getpocket.com/explore/item/researchers-translate-bat-talk-turns-out-they-argue-a-lot?utm_source=pocket-newtab

[8pla.net]

Dogs behave differently with humans than they do with other dogs, so I would say that Michio Kaku is wrong...

Interesting point.  Do dogs behave differently with humans than with other alpha dogs?  Maybe they do. Full disclosure, I am a fan of Michio's.  Whenever, I see him on the Science channels on TV, I always tune in.

[frankinstien]

Interesting point.  Do dogs behave differently with humans than with other alpha dogs?  Maybe they do. Full disclosure, I am a fan of Michio's.  Whenever, I see him on the Science channels on TV, I always tune in.

When a dog approaches another alpha dog it's nose to nose, with ears, tail, and hair up. When all my dogs see another dog they have a lot of energy, not so much when they site a human.One of my dogs is a German Shepard and he thinks of himself as second in command. When he's up against a dog much bigger than himself he'll still put up the facade of ears, tail, and hair up, but then walks off as if he could careless or shows no fear. If the bigger dog comes toward him with his ears, tail, and hair up, he'll then do a puppy bow to try and turn the situation into a game but shows no fear. The GS knows that if he shows fear the bigger dog will attack him. After he does the puppy bow he'll then do fake moves from one side to another to see if the bigger dog blinks. Of course, the bigger dog is now confused and then walks off or my GS walks off. That behavior is not expressed with humans despite humans are much taller than the dog, he might look at someone he doesn't know with an aggressive look, or if he views a stranger as a threat then he'll growl and bark with his tail spinning. It's completely different behavior than with other dogs...

[LOCKSUIT]

Knowing that you have a body (self awareness) and knowing it's you in the mirror let's you better survive longer. Say you are a car that learnt to drive to food, you already are surviving because of your learnt behavior. It's just more data when you find out where you are , or use a mirror as a tool to collect data , or if there is a stinger in your arm. More "longer and more confident pattern sequences or "features" / sensory tasks" let you predict better and that prediction results in better data collection to predict even better.