the mirror test is crazy. “we tested a bunch of animals to see if they share the exact same senses, grooming habits, and love of mirrors as a 30 year old new yorker. this is the most objective standard of sentience possible”
bird scientists confidently checking the “Not self aware” box when humans fail to respond to the unusual ultraviolet marking they’ve placed on them
Self awarenees in animals just coincidentally correlates strongly with whether they care what they look like and whether their natural environment is likely to contain pools of clean-ish standing water
interesting analysis here about what “recognizing oneself in a mirror” even means.
like, at what point did humans pass this test?
Was it when we understood light physics well enough to grasp that seeing our reflection literally IS seeing ourselves–the same physical process as looking down and seeing our hands, except that the light takes a more indirect path to our eyes? (many humans still don’t pass it by this definition!)
Was it when we believed the reflection was another being, some sort of fairyland or spiritual counterpart– who always looked exactly like us, and always moved exactly the same, for reasons of its own? (any animal that stops acting surprised when the mirror mimics its movements has probably reached this step!)