Honey bee in Seattle - March 29, 2020
In the last post, I mentioned that it has been found that bumble bees can visualize something they experienced by touch but couldn’t see, and recognize something they saw but never touched when they encounter it in the dark. This gives us a little more insight into what’s going on in insect, and probably other smaller organism’s, minds. And, it’s more than we thought.
More recently, I read a fascinating paper from Aeon, later adapted for American Scientist, by Lars Chittka and Catherine Wilson (https://aeon.co/essays/inside-the-mind-of-a-bee-is-a-hive-of-sensory-activity ; https://www.americanscientist.org/article/expanding-consciousness ) drawing together a variety of studies that persuasively suggest that insects may have emotions, foresight, self-recognition, an understanding of time and space, and brain control of activities that allows focus on various aspects of the environment. In short, if correct, then insects have consciousness that’s not so very different from human consciousness of the world. So, consciousness may have developed early on in evolution - remember that insects began to appear 400-500 million years ago (the human species about 200 thousand years ago). Others have even discussed that plants have a sort of consciousness, though the support seems rather thin.
Why care about whether insects have consciousness? To begin with, it allows human beings to see them in a new light - as something less reflexive or programmed. There is also significance among the philosophers who believe that consciousness or rationality defines whether we humans ought to care about what’s good or bad for another organism. It would mean that we draw the line a lot further down the list when determining which animals merit our moral concern. This is not the only way to determine which living beings might deserve our concern, of course, since other philosophers suggest that life itself is sufficient reason.
Aside from the philosophical considerations, and perhaps most importantly, it gives us another reason to develop a healthy respect for these tiny creatures. They seem to be able to do much of what we humans can do with far fewer brain cells. There’s more going on in those honey bees than meets the compound eye.