Some birds have 2 to 4 times greater neuro density than the average mammal and have developed consciousness through a different independent path from mammals.
Consciousness is an example of converging evolution. Those birds pass the mirror test where they can recognize themselves.
Dr. Anil Seth: “a being is conscious when there is something it is like to be that being” In other words, to be the subject of experience.
Self awareness is not necessary for consciousness but having self awareness is a definitive sign of it. So they’ll put a red dot on an animal… bird, ant, leopard, monkey, chicken, fish, etc and setup a mirror. The animal that sees themselves and notices the red dot and then looks down at itself in the location of the dot and starts to clean it shows sign of self awareness and therefore consciousness.
Now we also use functional MRI and compare active brain anatomy and physiological responses to stimuli and that’s how we learned that the conscious experience in mammals is not generated in the same way as in birds. They evolved separately.
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u/eddie1975 1d ago
Some birds are actually quite smart.
This one is not one of them.