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I've made an important discovery (ponder.cat)
submitted 5 months ago by PhilipTheBucket@ponder.cat to c/casualconversation@lemm.ee
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If you sit down next to a cat, and throw your arm over the back of the sofa while someone reaches over from behind and starts to pet the cat, and then after a little bit you stand up and leave while the phantom arm is still petting the cat, the cat understands that something really freaky is happening, gets scared, and runs away.

I would have thought they'd be happy that whatever weird thing is happening is petting them, but apparently not. An arm with no human is alarming and bad. I think it's cool that their mental model is that similar to ours.

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[-] lvxferre@mander.xyz 14 points 5 months ago

Mammals in general are so smart that I wonder if this mental model is shared by the whole class, or at least the Boreoeutheria (clade that includes both carnivores and primates, plus a lot more critters). And, like, the evolutionary benefits of that model are obvious - if whatever tore your arm apart is still lying around, you need to run away ASAP.

[-] Anticorp@lemmy.world 10 points 5 months ago

Birds are very smart too, some of them are much smarter than the average mammal.

[-] KnightontheSun@lemmy.world 9 points 5 months ago

I remember an article not long ago about a songbird that “riffs” within its song. Something like a jazz musician might. I’m fuzzy on the details, but this was stated as a sign of intelligence. The theory is that neural density might be variable based on the species…or something. Basically even that a bird brain can be intelligent and capable of some level of free thinking. We all know about crows and their street smarts too.

[-] lvxferre@mander.xyz 2 points 5 months ago

Some of them are really smart indeed, and I wouldn't be surprised if they developed a similar mental model through convergent evolution.

this post was submitted on 04 Jan 2025
146 points (98.0% liked)

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