I am annoyed, you see, by the mirror test for sentience.
Considering how many perceptual illusions a human could fall for, like the rubber hand illusion, suggesting that any one test based on decoding a perceptual duplicity is a test for self awareness seems too ridiculous to even contemplate for any serious moment.
To my mind, any creature which develops a survival mechanism must have a sense of ‘self’ otherwise they could not know which parts of their sensory experience are the parts they need to protect in order to survive.
Denying an octopus or a corvid the dignity of accepting they are thinking beings, when we observe their problem solving in real time, is just rudeness disguised as science. Other creatures whose sensory priorities are different to ours will not have developed the relationship with mirrors that we have.
Can we find a better description of the phenomenon we wish to understand, and drop this headline-baiting nonsense once and for all?
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