[Migrated, see pinned post] Casual Conversation

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I've made an important discovery (ponder.cat)

submitted 6 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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[–] Anticorp@lemmy.world 9 points 6 months ago (2 children)

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

[–] KnightontheSun@lemmy.world 9 points 6 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 6 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.