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What is it like to be a bat?

(en.wikipedia.org)
180 points adityaathalye | 2 comments | 03 Sep 25 17:48 UTC | HN request time: 0s | source
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socrateswasone ◴[03 Sep 25 23:08 UTC] No.45121349[source]▶
It's not like anything, a bat has no sense of self or personal history, it operates on instinct without a personal, reflective self. A bat having consciousness is as relevant as whether a sonar does.
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1. accrual ◴[04 Sep 25 00:16 UTC] No.45121901[source]▶
> it operates on instinct without a personal, reflective self

I think we would call this "without ego" and not "without consciousness". I think it's totally possible to be conscious without ego. And perhaps bats do have an ego however small - some may be more greedy than others, etc.

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2. socrateswasone ◴[04 Sep 25 03:34 UTC] No.45123248[source]▶
I think what consciousness nominally means is an awareness of things in relation to a self, a subject-object relation. If there is such a thing as awareness without subject object content, I'd love to hear more, like how would you even know you have it.