[Robotgroup] Can Animals and Robots Be Self-Aware?

[Def Egge]

At 18:18  2007-04-22, you wrote:
>I came across this article as well.
>

[brevitized]

>Rats are very smart and well adapted creatures.  (They can go longer without
>water than a camel, for example.)


[brevitized]

I'm glad to se your input here, Glenn.  In part, that means that the 
heart is still functioning as is the sharp mind.

Regarding rodents and drinking water ... one of the most intriguing 
charges I ever cared for was a tiny pocket mouse ... a subterranean 
desert dweller by day and a surface forager by night.  The danged 
thing never drank water ... not once per week, not once per month, 
not once per year ... never (a very long time, I understand).

"Mouse" obtained his(?) water from the dry seeds he ate.  At night, 
he would forage for tiny seeds on the surface of his sandy world.  He 
stuffed his treasure trove into a pair of fur-lined external cheek 
pouches, carried his haul into his burrow and pushed it out on the 
floor.  Then, he kicked dry sand over the pile.  The lipids stored in 
the seeds were his source of (metabolic) water.  He obtained about 
110% (in water) of his lipid intake: 1.1 gm of H2O per 1.0 gm seed 
lipid.  So precious were these seeds that any chance of fungal 
spoilage might severely reduce his probability of survival.

He was trained to eat de-seeded apple cores.  When he encountered one 
on his forays to the surface, he would vigorously kick sand on it and 
leave it to dry.  Once dry (he would gnaw upon it and, if it met his 
approval), he would carry it back to his lair.  Some three years 
after being brought into the laboratory, he finally learned to eat 
the apple flesh on the surface without kicking sand upon it.

So strong was this urge - a result of the judgement visited upon his 
kind by Darwinian natural selection - that he continued to go through 
the motions of kicking sand on his apple flesh.

Intelligence?  Instinct?  That is left as an exercise to the 
reader.  FYI: In the wild, pocket mice have annual population 
turnovers estimated at 95+%!


All the best....

Mike