[tirsales]

Again I'd very much to like to get answered why it is so important to be "above animals".

Originally Posted by UtterInanity

Have they moved beyond a stimulus -> response model? I don't think so.

But surely they have. See my discussion with desertgrandma - a simple "stimulus -> response model" cannot even begin to explain playing animals (or bee dances for that matter, though bee dances are relatively easy).

They certainly have more cognitive power than insects. They can recognize patterns, and apply their past experiences to similar situations in the future. They also have a wide array of instincts to draw on. Are they human? Not even close.

Why?

but we allow the outputs to be fed back in as inputs again.

You do know that some animals are actively communicating? That some animals e.g. learn to imitate others?

Only a human could ask themselves why they do what they do.

There is no proof that animals cannot do the same. In fact there is proof that some animals can do basic abstractions (e.g. taking into account what other animals could know, recognizing oneself in a mirror, etc)

Only a human could take in a situation, come up with a reaction, and then analyze that reaction before acting on it. Everything else can only analyze (if they analyze at all) the incoming stimulus that results from their reaction, whether good or bad.

Then explain a crow that watches a crow watching her and as a response hides something useless (for the watcher to get) and then hides something special (for the watcher to ignore).