1
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[man] <i>Who's that in the mirror?</i>

2
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[Hilary Swank] <i>This is known as</i>
<i>the mirror self-recognition test.</i>

3
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<i>Some versions use a red mark,</i>

4
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<i>and you pass if you recognize</i>
<i>that it's on your own face.</i>

5
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<i>Children begin to pass</i>
<i>at around 18 months old,</i>

6
00:00:23,566 --> 00:00:26,527
<i>which signals a major milestone</i>
<i>in their development.</i>

7
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Hey.

8
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The mirror studies are so intriguing,

9
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because at a very intuitive level,
we relate to the mirror.

10
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Looking in a mirror, recognizing yourself
has something to do with self-awareness.

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<i>Humans aren't the only animals</i>
<i>that can recognize themselves.</i>

12
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<i>Chimps were the first</i>
<i>to pass the mirror test.</i>

13
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<i>Then others followed.</i>

14
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<i>Dolphins, elephants...</i>

15
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<i>even magpies.</i>

16
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And then recently,
the fish study came along.

17
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I'm not a hundred percent on board
with the fish.

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<i>That fish passing was... controversial. </i>

19
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<i>And the test has other surprising results.</i>

20
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<i>Some monkeys don't pass,</i>

21
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<i>even though they're widely seen</i>
<i>as intelligent animals.</i>

22
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<i>If you're a dog owner,</i>

23
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<i>you may have noticed</i>
<i>how your pet reacts to its reflection.</i>

24
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[barks]

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<i>Research on animal intelligence</i>
<i>over the last few decades</i>

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<i>has sometimes been confounding,</i>

27
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<i>but it's also given us</i>
<i>profound new insights</i>

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<i>about where we fit into the world.</i>

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To anchor our understanding
of the human mind

30
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more in where we come from, our ancestry,

31
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uh, we need to know more about animals.

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<i>So how do other animals think?</i>

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<i>And how does studying</i>
<i>the minds of animals</i>

34
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<i>reveal what it is... to be human?</i>

35
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[man] <i>Pretty clever bird, the parrot.</i>
<i>He can actually pronounce words.</i>

36
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<i>Of course he has no idea</i>
<i>what the words mean.</i>

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-[Ed] I'm a horse, not a guinea pig.
<i>-</i>[laughter]

38
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[man] <i>Almost everybody</i>
<i>likes to watch animals,</i>

39
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<i>whose instincts and intelligence</i>
<i>are sometimes remarkable.</i>

40
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[second man] <i>The lifetime of all mankind</i>
<i>is but a brief moment</i>

41
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<i>in the long history of this Earth of ours.</i>

42
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<i>[third man] Not only can we control</i>
<i>many important variables,</i>

43
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<i>but our subjects are available</i>
<i>when we need them.</i>

44
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<i>♪ Hey, hey ♪</i>

45
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<i>♪ Hey ♪</i>

46
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I think about
what's going on in her little head.

47
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She's always looking around.
The wheels are always turning.

48
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He's very smart.

49
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He's already learned to say
probably about a dozen words or phrases.

50
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He has a lot of opinions,
and he wants what he wants.

51
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[man] Elliot's ego
is very easy to damage.

52
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Whenever Elliot meets other rabbits,
we're always like,

53
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"Oh, my God, he thinks
he's so much better than them."

54
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He can be-- I hate
that I'm gonna say this. He can be snappy.

55
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You know, so many of us who have dogs
or cats or pets have<i> </i>wondered like,

56
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"What are they thinking? Do they love me?
Like, do they understand this thing?"

57
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It's such a human thing to do--

58
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to wonder what's going on
inside another animal's head.

59
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<i>And we can't just ask them.</i>

60
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<i>Animals clearly have ways</i>
<i>of communicating with each other.</i>

61
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<i>Bees do it by dancing.</i>

62
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<i>-Whales sing.</i>
-[vocalizes]

63
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<i>-And chimpanzees gesture and scream.</i>
-[screaming]

64
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<i>But humans have tens of thousands of words</i>
<i>at our disposal,</i>

65
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<i>which, strung together, can communicate</i>
<i>an infinite number of ideas.</i>

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<i>So seeing if animals</i>

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<i>could communicate with us</i>
<i>in human language</i>

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<i>was one of the first efforts</i>
<i>in animal-intelligence research.</i>

69
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<i>And this was one of the first experiments</i>

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<i>with a chimp named Viki in the late 1940s.</i>

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Now who am I?

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Papa? Papa?

73
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<i>You can see it's not going so well.</i>

74
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<i>It turned out chimp vocal cords</i>
<i>aren't built for speaking.</i>

75
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<i>But then, in 1966,</i>
<i>a psychologist couple had another idea.</i>

76
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<i>They brought home</i>
<i>a wild-born baby chimp name Washoe,</i>

77
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<i>raised her like a human child,</i>

78
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<i>and tried to teach her</i>
<i>American Sign Language.</i>

79
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<i>Washoe ultimately learned about 150 signs,</i>
<i>like for these words...</i>

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[man] <i>Toothbrush.</i> <i>Hug.</i>

81
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<i>Open.</i> <i>Out.</i>

82
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The linguists had defined language
as symbolic communication.

83
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Then Washoe came along,
and she was doing symbolic communication.

84
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She was using hand signals
to refer to certain things.

85
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<i>Other high-profile</i>
<i>ape language studies followed</i>

86
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<i>which seemed to show that the human mind</i>
<i>and our ability to communicate</i>

87
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<i>wasn't so unique after all.</i>

88
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<i>So the question was,</i>
<i>"Were these apes actually using language?"</i>

89
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<i>This was a radical question.</i>

90
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<i>Up until the late 19th century,</i>
<i>the assumption in most Western cultures</i>

91
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<i>was that human minds</i>
<i>had nothing to do with animals.</i>

92
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<i>That wasn't the case</i>
<i>in some Eastern religions like Buddhism.</i>

93
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<i>That view of the universe</i>
<i>looked like this.</i>

94
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<i>Humans and animals</i>
<i>shared the same essential nature</i>

95
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<i>and were linked through rebirth.</i>

96
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<i>But the Christian worldview</i>
<i>looked more like this.</i>

97
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<i>Humans were superior</i>
<i>because they had souls,</i>

98
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<i>and animals were ranked below them.</i>

99
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[Frans] <i>You have mammals, then you go down</i>
<i>to the worms and the molluscs and so on.</i>

100
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<i>Of course, humans were closest to God,</i>

101
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<i>'cause the angels and God,</i>
<i>they were just-just above us.</i>

102
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[Swank] <i>But Charles Darwin</i>
<i>changed all that</i>

103
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<i>with this first sketch of a tree of life</i>
<i>in his notebook.</i>

104
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<i>It might look small,</i>

105
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<i>but this blew up that worldview</i>
<i>with the Theory of Evolution.</i>

106
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One of the things that Darwin did so well
in the <i>Origin of Species</i>

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was to make vivid an alternative picture,

108
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a picture in which
it's a tree, not a scale.

109
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<i>Where all animals</i>
<i>evolved from earlier life forms</i>

110
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<i>and all life is related,</i>
<i>even if distantly,</i>

111
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<i>Homo sapiens are right here.</i> <i>That's us.</i>

112
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<i>Darwin also said that intelligence</i>
<i>must be on this tree, writing,</i>

113
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<i>"The difference in mind</i>
<i>between man and the higher animals,</i>

114
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<i>great as it is,</i> <i>certainly is one of degree</i>
<i>and not of kind."</i>

115
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<i>But the mind is a hard thing</i>
<i>to study scientifically.</i>

116
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<i>So for much of the 20th century,</i>

117
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<i>mainstream psychology</i>
<i>measured behavior instead.</i>

118
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<i>This school of thought</i>
<i>was called behaviorism.</i>

119
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Behaviorism became a sort of religion.

120
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At first, I think their goals
were perfectly fine.

121
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They said, "Let's move away from
internal states

122
00:06:14,375 --> 00:06:16,502
like feelings and thoughts
and stuff like that

123
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and just look at behavior."

124
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<i>But then behaviorism went further,</i>

125
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<i>arguing that the mind</i>
<i>didn't really matter at all.</i>

126
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<i>Any sign of intelligence</i>

127
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<i>was just learned through</i>
<i>a system of rewards and punishments.</i>

128
00:06:28,347 --> 00:06:32,184
<i>And that's one interpretation</i>
<i>of how apes learned language.</i>

129
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<i>The psychologist B.F. Skinner</i>
<i>was the high priest of behaviorism.</i>

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[man] <i>His work has been</i>
<i>both applauded and attacked,</i>

131
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<i>because it details methods</i>

132
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<i>to shape and control</i>
<i>the behavior of others.</i>

133
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[Swank] <i>Skinner thought animals</i>
<i>were stimulus-response machines</i>

134
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<i>and that you could teach them</i>
<i>almost anything</i>

135
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<i>with the right rewards and punishments,</i>
<i>like teaching pigeons to read.</i>

136
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[man] <i>He's learned</i>
<i>his different response to each sign</i>

137
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<i>by being rewarded with food.</i>

138
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[Swank] <i>Or to play ping-pong.</i>

139
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<i>Or to fly a World War II missile,</i>

140
00:07:01,797 --> 00:07:05,217
<i>which actually worked, but was never used.</i>

141
00:07:05,301 --> 00:07:07,553
<i>Skinner thought humans</i>
<i>learned this way, too,</i>

142
00:07:07,636 --> 00:07:09,722
<i>even if we were more advanced.</i>

143
00:07:09,805 --> 00:07:11,599
<i>In a 1977 interview,</i>

144
00:07:11,682 --> 00:07:14,226
<i>he argued that both human</i>
<i>and animal intelligence</i>

145
00:07:14,310 --> 00:07:15,561
<i>was just conditioning.</i>

146
00:07:15,644 --> 00:07:18,355
Of course, human behavior
is extraordinarily different,

147
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much more complex than animal behavior,

148
00:07:21,442 --> 00:07:23,569
but the fundamental principles
are probably there.

149
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[explosion]

150
00:07:24,987 --> 00:07:27,990
<i>But the linguist, Noam Chomsky,</i>
<i>disagreed with Skinner.</i>

151
00:07:28,073 --> 00:07:29,825
<i>In an interview that same year,</i>

152
00:07:29,909 --> 00:07:33,162
<i>Chomsky argued that humans</i>
<i>don't need to be conditioned</i>

153
00:07:33,245 --> 00:07:34,497
<i>to acquire language.</i>

154
00:07:34,580 --> 00:07:37,750
<i>We're built for it,</i>
<i>and it's clear from a young age.</i>

155
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Most parents

156
00:07:38,834 --> 00:07:42,046
don't give any systematic instruction
of any kind to their children,

157
00:07:42,129 --> 00:07:43,589
yet the children nevertheless learn.

158
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In a certain sense, we might go on to say
language isn't even learned.

159
00:07:46,967 --> 00:07:49,762
<i>And he thought animals</i>
<i>were built for other things.</i>

160
00:07:49,845 --> 00:07:54,141
<i>When asked whether apes like Washoe</i>
<i>could learn language, he responded,</i>

161
00:07:54,225 --> 00:07:57,811
<i>"Humans can fly about 30 feet.</i>
<i>That's what they do in the Olympics.</i>

162
00:07:57,895 --> 00:08:01,273
<i>Is that flying?</i>
<i>The question is totally meaningless."</i>

163
00:08:02,233 --> 00:08:05,736
<i>After Washoe, researchers</i>
<i>taught sign language to another chimp,</i>

164
00:08:05,819 --> 00:08:07,279
<i>Nim Chimpsky...</i>

165
00:08:08,113 --> 00:08:11,450
<i>and reviewed the footage</i>
<i>of previous ape language studies,</i>

166
00:08:11,534 --> 00:08:15,579
<i>and concluded that chimps</i>
<i>could imitate isolated words,</i>

167
00:08:15,663 --> 00:08:19,375
<i>but couldn't speak in</i>
<i>spontaneous sentences or with grammar</i>

168
00:08:19,458 --> 00:08:21,043
<i>the way humans do.</i>

169
00:08:21,126 --> 00:08:25,756
<i>In the end, Nim Chimpsky's</i>
<i>longest sentence was these 16 words--</i>

170
00:08:25,839 --> 00:08:29,051
<i>"Give orange me give eat orange</i>

171
00:08:29,134 --> 00:08:30,678
<i>me eat orange</i>

172
00:08:30,761 --> 00:08:33,806
<i>give me eat orange give me you."</i>

173
00:08:34,932 --> 00:08:37,059
<i>Behaviorism fell out of favor.</i>

174
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Even though we now don't believe so much
anymore that they have language,

175
00:08:41,814 --> 00:08:44,692
still, they opened up
that whole field of animal cognition

176
00:08:44,775 --> 00:08:47,403
by showing that apes could do
much more than we thought.

177
00:08:49,196 --> 00:08:50,489
<i>Today, thanks to Darwin,</i>

178
00:08:50,573 --> 00:08:54,410
<i>scientists agree that human intelligence</i>
<i>evolved from earlier primates</i>

179
00:08:54,493 --> 00:08:57,580
<i>with the first big split</i>
<i>around seven million years ago</i>

180
00:08:57,663 --> 00:09:00,374
<i>and another around 200,000 years ago.</i>

181
00:09:00,457 --> 00:09:02,835
<i>That's when Homo sapiens appeared.</i>

182
00:09:02,918 --> 00:09:07,756
<i>Then, in an evolutionary blink of an eye,</i>
<i>humans developed bigger brains,</i>

183
00:09:07,840 --> 00:09:11,719
<i>complex languages, cultures,</i>
<i>technologies and civilizations</i>

184
00:09:11,802 --> 00:09:14,138
<i>and spread out around the globe.</i>

185
00:09:15,180 --> 00:09:17,891
<i>One theory about why</i>
<i>the human brain is exceptional</i>

186
00:09:17,975 --> 00:09:20,436
<i>is that it just has more neurons.</i>

187
00:09:20,519 --> 00:09:24,523
<i>The human brain</i>
<i>has roughly 100 billion of them.</i>

188
00:09:24,607 --> 00:09:27,526
<i>That's over three times more</i>
<i>than a chimpanzee</i>

189
00:09:27,610 --> 00:09:29,987
<i>and over a thousand times more</i>
<i>than a mouse.</i>

190
00:09:30,070 --> 00:09:36,160
<i>But recently, a study found that elephants</i>
<i>have close to 260 billion neurons,</i>

191
00:09:36,243 --> 00:09:38,287
<i>almost three times more than us.</i>

192
00:09:38,912 --> 00:09:43,292
<i>Scientists have tried to figure out if</i>
<i>the kind of neurons</i> <i>we have are special.</i>

193
00:09:44,168 --> 00:09:45,502
<i>They don't look special.</i>

194
00:09:45,586 --> 00:09:46,587
This is so true

195
00:09:46,670 --> 00:09:50,090
that if you just look at a slide
of a human brain or a mouse brain,

196
00:09:50,174 --> 00:09:54,261
and you showed a neuron from that slide
to a neuroscientist,

197
00:09:54,345 --> 00:09:56,597
they'd be really hard-pressed to tell you

198
00:09:56,680 --> 00:10:00,517
whether that came from a human brain
or from a mouse brain.

199
00:10:00,601 --> 00:10:03,354
<i>But not all neurons</i>
<i>have the same function.</i>

200
00:10:03,437 --> 00:10:05,939
<i>Human brains</i>
<i>seem to have particular neurons</i>

201
00:10:06,023 --> 00:10:09,193
<i>that activate</i>
<i>when we learn from others' behavior.</i>

202
00:10:09,276 --> 00:10:11,904
<i>They're called mirror neurons.</i>

203
00:10:11,987 --> 00:10:16,116
<i>But scientists have found similar neurons</i>
<i>in the brains of other primates.</i>

204
00:10:16,200 --> 00:10:19,662
<i>And a study discovered them</i>
<i>in swamp sparrows, too.</i>

205
00:10:19,745 --> 00:10:20,579
[chirping]

206
00:10:20,663 --> 00:10:24,625
<i>They activated when the birds</i>
<i>mimicked the songs of other birds.</i>

207
00:10:24,708 --> 00:10:27,670
And so we haven't found
the special human neuron yet.

208
00:10:27,753 --> 00:10:31,882
And there's a hundred billion neurons,
so there's still a lot to-to search.

209
00:10:33,634 --> 00:10:34,843
<i>Humans rank the highest</i>

210
00:10:34,927 --> 00:10:38,097
<i>on the standard calculation</i>
<i>of brain-to-body ratio.</i>

211
00:10:38,180 --> 00:10:41,975
<i>Other animals we perceive as intelligent</i>
<i>rank highly, too.</i>

212
00:10:42,059 --> 00:10:45,771
<i>And bigger-brained animals</i>
<i>also tend to have longer lives.</i>

213
00:10:45,854 --> 00:10:48,524
Often when we're thinking about
intelligence in other animals,

214
00:10:48,607 --> 00:10:51,026
we tend to focus on
the cognitive capacities

215
00:10:51,110 --> 00:10:53,028
that we're super proud of in humans.

216
00:10:53,112 --> 00:10:54,988
<i>Like being socially smart,</i>

217
00:10:55,072 --> 00:10:59,493
<i>because we develop the ability to live in</i>
<i>complicated social structures.</i>

218
00:10:59,576 --> 00:11:02,287
<i>But chimps do too on a smaller scale</i>

219
00:11:02,371 --> 00:11:04,039
<i>which requires the intelligence</i>

220
00:11:04,123 --> 00:11:07,584
<i>to make careful judgments</i>
<i>about the feelings of others.</i>

221
00:11:07,668 --> 00:11:09,837
[Frans] <i>Can I predict the behavior</i>
<i>of somebody else?</i>

222
00:11:09,920 --> 00:11:13,632
<i>Can I challenge this individual?</i>
<i>Will I have backing if I do that?</i>

223
00:11:13,716 --> 00:11:17,177
<i>How do I reconcile</i>
<i>and with whom do I reconcile after fights?</i>

224
00:11:17,261 --> 00:11:19,805
<i>They have to make</i>
<i>complex decisions very often.</i>

225
00:11:20,723 --> 00:11:23,058
[Swank] <i>Researchers think chimps</i>
<i>experience empathy</i>

226
00:11:23,142 --> 00:11:25,102
<i>because they have yawn contagion.</i>

227
00:11:25,185 --> 00:11:26,645
<i>A 2009 study</i>

228
00:11:26,729 --> 00:11:30,399
<i>discovered that chimps will yawn</i>
<i>when shown a cartoon chimp yawning.</i>

229
00:11:31,275 --> 00:11:35,654
<i>We used to believe we were unique</i>
<i>in how we use tools to solve problems.</i>

230
00:11:35,738 --> 00:11:38,741
We encounter problems
that we didn't know would be there, right?

231
00:11:38,824 --> 00:11:42,161
Because the universe
is a little random, it's hard to predict,

232
00:11:42,244 --> 00:11:44,288
and I think
one definition of intelligence

233
00:11:44,371 --> 00:11:48,125
is can that animal solve that problem
that it encounters

234
00:11:48,208 --> 00:11:51,295
to achieve whatever goal, uh, it wants.

235
00:11:51,378 --> 00:11:52,921
<i>But in the 1960s,</i>

236
00:11:53,005 --> 00:11:57,301
<i>Jane Goodall discovered</i>
<i>widespread tool use among chimpanzees,</i>

237
00:11:57,384 --> 00:12:00,345
<i>and then researchers discovered</i>
<i>something surprising.</i>

238
00:12:00,429 --> 00:12:01,930
<i>Birds could do this, too.</i>

239
00:12:02,014 --> 00:12:05,684
[Frans]<i> For example, New Caledonian crows</i>
<i>are very good tool users.</i>

240
00:12:05,768 --> 00:12:08,979
<i>We know that now.</i> <i>They even make tools.</i>
<i>They modify them.</i>

241
00:12:09,062 --> 00:12:11,690
<i>They can all do sequences of tools.</i>

242
00:12:11,774 --> 00:12:13,066
[Swank] <i>While other animals</i>

243
00:12:13,150 --> 00:12:15,486
<i>may solve problems</i>
<i>as they come across them,</i>

244
00:12:15,569 --> 00:12:17,488
<i>humans thought we were at least special</i>

245
00:12:17,571 --> 00:12:21,158
<i>in that we learn from our memories</i>
<i>and can plan for future problems.</i>

246
00:12:21,241 --> 00:12:24,453
We used to think of animals,
they're captive of the present.

247
00:12:24,536 --> 00:12:25,788
We humans are different

248
00:12:25,871 --> 00:12:29,249
because we tend to think
back in time to specific events.

249
00:12:29,333 --> 00:12:32,336
We can think forward,
we can make plans for tomorrow

250
00:12:32,419 --> 00:12:36,298
or even much further away,
and that makes us different.

251
00:12:36,381 --> 00:12:40,385
<i>But research on the Clark's Nutcracker,</i>
<i>another member of the crow family,</i>

252
00:12:40,469 --> 00:12:44,264
<i>estimates they can hide</i>
<i>up to 30,000 seeds in the fall</i>

253
00:12:44,348 --> 00:12:47,309
<i>in 6,000 different locations,</i>

254
00:12:47,392 --> 00:12:51,188
<i>and then find them again</i>
<i>months later in the spring.</i>

255
00:12:51,271 --> 00:12:53,565
And I don't even know where
my car is being parked,

256
00:12:53,649 --> 00:12:56,944
so I think it's pretty impressive
what they do.

257
00:12:57,027 --> 00:12:59,988
<i>But humans don't just</i>
<i>plan for their own future.</i>

258
00:13:00,072 --> 00:13:02,366
<i>We plan for the future of our species.</i>

259
00:13:02,449 --> 00:13:05,536
<i>We build schools, libraries, and museums.</i>

260
00:13:05,619 --> 00:13:06,787
<i>We have culture.</i>

261
00:13:06,870 --> 00:13:10,874
[Bobby] <i>Culture is this idea</i>
<i>of shared responsibility for our children.</i>

262
00:13:10,958 --> 00:13:13,752
<i>And I think that model can be found</i>

263
00:13:13,836 --> 00:13:15,337
<i>in rudimentary versions</i>

264
00:13:15,420 --> 00:13:17,297
<i>of animals taking care of their children.</i>

265
00:13:18,048 --> 00:13:19,216
[Swank]<i> In Côte d'Ivoire,</i>

266
00:13:19,299 --> 00:13:22,261
<i>a study of three genetically related</i>
<i>groups of chimpanzees</i>

267
00:13:22,344 --> 00:13:24,763
<i>found that each group</i>
<i>used different types of tools</i>

268
00:13:24,847 --> 00:13:27,933
<i>to crack open the same African walnuts,</i>

269
00:13:28,016 --> 00:13:31,103
<i>evidence that each group</i>
<i>taught their offspring differently.</i>

270
00:13:31,186 --> 00:13:33,730
<i>And whales have culture, too.</i>

271
00:13:33,814 --> 00:13:35,858
[whale vocalizes]

272
00:13:37,067 --> 00:13:40,571
<i>This is a hit humpback whale song.</i>

273
00:13:40,654 --> 00:13:44,157
<i>In 2009, only this group of whales</i>
<i>was singing it.</i>

274
00:13:44,992 --> 00:13:46,368
<i>Then in 2010,</i>

275
00:13:46,451 --> 00:13:49,872
<i>they encountered other whale groups</i>
<i>at a communal feeding spot,</i>

276
00:13:49,955 --> 00:13:51,290
<i>and one of those other groups</i>

277
00:13:51,373 --> 00:13:55,711
<i>abandoned their own song</i>
<i>and returned home singing this new tune.</i>

278
00:13:55,794 --> 00:13:58,255
<i>They call this a cultural revolution.</i>

279
00:14:00,424 --> 00:14:01,466
<i>Discoveries like this</i>

280
00:14:01,550 --> 00:14:05,137
<i>disrupted our understanding</i>
<i>of how intelligence evolved.</i>

281
00:14:05,220 --> 00:14:06,221
<i>Birds and whales</i>

282
00:14:06,305 --> 00:14:09,224
<i>aren't as closely related to humans</i>
<i>as other primates.</i>

283
00:14:10,058 --> 00:14:12,227
<i>Whales and humans, both mammals,</i>

284
00:14:12,311 --> 00:14:15,439
<i>share an ancestor</i>
<i>around a hundred million years ago,</i>

285
00:14:15,522 --> 00:14:18,525
<i>and our last common ancestor</i>
<i>with the crow family?</i>

286
00:14:18,609 --> 00:14:22,237
<i>300 million years ago</i>
<i>before the dinosaurs.</i>

287
00:14:23,238 --> 00:14:25,365
We're kind of converging on
the same abilities,

288
00:14:25,449 --> 00:14:27,326
not because we're closely related,

289
00:14:27,409 --> 00:14:29,536
but because we've had
similar problems we've faced,

290
00:14:29,620 --> 00:14:31,830
and we've come up with
the same cognitive structures.

291
00:14:31,914 --> 00:14:35,667
<i>This happened with physical traits</i>
<i>all over the animal world.</i>

292
00:14:35,751 --> 00:14:39,838
<i>Unrelated species independently developed</i>
<i>similar traits to fit their needs,</i>

293
00:14:39,922 --> 00:14:42,966
<i>like wings, dorsal fins, and venom.</i>

294
00:14:43,050 --> 00:14:45,719
<i>And this happened to the mind, too.</i>

295
00:14:47,220 --> 00:14:50,307
<i>Which is why animals</i>
<i>all over the evolutionary tree</i>

296
00:14:50,390 --> 00:14:53,101
<i>may have a sense of self-awareness.</i>

297
00:14:53,810 --> 00:14:56,438
<i>Except it's hard to tell with the fish.</i>

298
00:14:56,521 --> 00:14:59,358
<i>One reason it might have tried</i>
<i>to scrape off the red mark</i>

299
00:14:59,441 --> 00:15:00,734
<i>is because it could feel it</i>

300
00:15:00,817 --> 00:15:03,403
<i>when researchers</i>
<i>pricked its scale with ink,</i>

301
00:15:03,487 --> 00:15:05,489
<i>not because it recognized itself.</i>

302
00:15:06,657 --> 00:15:09,493
<i>And the mirror test has other limitations.</i>

303
00:15:09,576 --> 00:15:13,747
Part of the problem, uh, is that
what the test that I gave you

304
00:15:13,830 --> 00:15:15,165
is a very visual test,

305
00:15:15,248 --> 00:15:18,502
and it might be that many animals
don't use vision

306
00:15:18,585 --> 00:15:22,714
the way we use vision to recognize
a sentient other human beings.

307
00:15:22,798 --> 00:15:27,719
<i>Which highlights a fundamental flaw</i>
<i>in how we've studied</i> <i>the minds of animals.</i>

308
00:15:27,803 --> 00:15:30,806
<i>In a way, many of our tests</i>
<i>have been like a mirror,</i>

309
00:15:30,889 --> 00:15:34,476
<i>looking for human qualities,</i>
<i>using human measures</i>

310
00:15:34,559 --> 00:15:37,062
<i>based on a human perception of the world.</i>

311
00:15:38,146 --> 00:15:41,608
<i>This is what dogs' vision looks like</i>
<i>compared to humans'.</i>

312
00:15:41,692 --> 00:15:44,319
<i>Dogs are red-green color-blind,</i>

313
00:15:44,403 --> 00:15:45,862
<i>and their vision is between</i>

314
00:15:45,946 --> 00:15:48,615
<i>four and eight times</i>
<i>less precise than humans'.</i>

315
00:15:48,699 --> 00:15:52,119
<i>But they navigate their world</i>
<i>with their sense of smell,</i>

316
00:15:52,202 --> 00:15:55,831
<i>which is 10,000 times stronger</i>
<i>than humans'.</i>

317
00:15:55,914 --> 00:15:58,709
<i>So a researcher designed a test</i>
<i>with canisters of urine</i>

318
00:15:58,792 --> 00:16:01,336
<i>to see if dogs</i>
<i>could recognize their own scent</i>

319
00:16:01,420 --> 00:16:03,755
<i>from one mixed with other scents.</i>

320
00:16:03,839 --> 00:16:06,591
<i>They lingered on the mixed scents</i>
<i>longer than their own,</i>

321
00:16:06,675 --> 00:16:09,261
<i>indicating that dogs may be self-aware,</i>

322
00:16:09,344 --> 00:16:12,556
<i>but mainly through smell instead of sight.</i>

323
00:16:12,639 --> 00:16:15,684
<i>That may also explain why in 2011,</i>

324
00:16:15,767 --> 00:16:20,897
<i>researchers found that elephants,</i>
<i>a smart animal by many standards,</i>

325
00:16:20,981 --> 00:16:22,941
<i>failed a simple tool test</i>

326
00:16:23,025 --> 00:16:26,111
<i>to use sticks to get food</i>
<i>just out of reach.</i>

327
00:16:26,194 --> 00:16:29,281
In order to understand the elephant,
we need to understand, for example,

328
00:16:29,364 --> 00:16:32,701
the elephant has
a hundred times better smell than the dog.

329
00:16:32,784 --> 00:16:35,620
<i>But then the researchers</i>
<i>modified the test.</i>

330
00:16:35,704 --> 00:16:39,666
<i>Instead of leaving out sticks,</i>
<i>they left out a box and tire</i>

331
00:16:39,750 --> 00:16:42,919
<i>to see if the elephants</i>
<i>would stand on them to reach the food.</i>

332
00:16:43,628 --> 00:16:45,881
<i>And the elephants passed.</i>

333
00:16:45,964 --> 00:16:47,674
And the reason is, we think,

334
00:16:47,758 --> 00:16:50,052
because for an elephant
to pick up a stick...

335
00:16:50,802 --> 00:16:52,679
it shuts off its smelling organ.

336
00:16:52,763 --> 00:16:54,765
And so you need to understand
the elephant

337
00:16:54,848 --> 00:16:57,392
and understand a trunk
is not the same as a hand.

338
00:16:57,476 --> 00:16:59,144
It has very different functions.

339
00:17:00,020 --> 00:17:03,065
Every animal has its own way
of looking at the world,

340
00:17:03,148 --> 00:17:05,692
its own perceptual capacities.

341
00:17:05,776 --> 00:17:09,446
Some animals hear things and see things
that we don't notice.

342
00:17:10,906 --> 00:17:14,326
<i>Take bats, for example,</i>
<i>a species that evolved the ability</i>

343
00:17:14,409 --> 00:17:17,412
<i>to sense its surroundings</i>
<i>through echolocation.</i>

344
00:17:17,496 --> 00:17:20,832
<i>This means they navigate</i>
<i>by making high-pitched sounds,</i>

345
00:17:20,916 --> 00:17:25,796
<i>mostly imperceptible to human ears,</i>
<i>that bounce off nearby objects.</i>

346
00:17:25,879 --> 00:17:29,424
<i>And salmon can use</i>
<i>the Earth's magnetic field like a compass</i>

347
00:17:29,508 --> 00:17:32,427
<i>to navigate across</i>
<i>thousands of miles of open ocean</i>

348
00:17:32,511 --> 00:17:34,513
<i>back to their spawning grounds.</i>

349
00:17:34,596 --> 00:17:36,348
<i>The fact that we can't do these things</i>

350
00:17:36,431 --> 00:17:40,018
<i>might make us seem pretty dumb</i>
<i>to a bat or a salmon.</i>

351
00:17:40,102 --> 00:17:42,938
We're just missing a lot of the stuff
that animals do

352
00:17:43,021 --> 00:17:45,440
that's incredibly smart
and incredibly clever,

353
00:17:45,524 --> 00:17:48,693
because we're using human intelligence
as the standard.

354
00:17:48,777 --> 00:17:51,947
<i>And the more we expand</i>
<i>our idea of intelligence</i>

355
00:17:52,030 --> 00:17:53,865
<i>to include more animals,</i>

356
00:17:53,949 --> 00:17:55,575
<i>the more we protect them.</i>

357
00:17:55,659 --> 00:17:59,830
<i>The Spanish parliament passed a resolution</i>
<i>to grant rights to great apes</i>

358
00:17:59,913 --> 00:18:03,583
<i>to protect them from captivity</i>
<i>or experimentation.</i>

359
00:18:03,667 --> 00:18:05,961
<i>A similar case is being made in the U.S.</i>

360
00:18:06,044 --> 00:18:08,130
<i>for the legal rights of the first elephant</i>

361
00:18:08,213 --> 00:18:10,799
<i>that passed</i>
<i>the mirror self-recognition test.</i>

362
00:18:11,550 --> 00:18:14,553
<i>And the Indian government</i>
<i>banned dolphin shows</i>

363
00:18:14,636 --> 00:18:19,391
<i>because of the mounting evidence that</i>
<i>dolphins are a highly intelligent species.</i>

364
00:18:20,100 --> 00:18:24,104
We need to anchor our own existence,
so to speak, in nature.

365
00:18:24,187 --> 00:18:27,774
We have a tendency to set ourselves apart.
We are separate.

366
00:18:27,858 --> 00:18:30,735
We are not.
We are completely intertwined with it.

367
00:18:30,819 --> 00:18:34,739
So we cannot handle nature any way we want
because we have to be careful.

368
00:18:34,823 --> 00:18:36,199
<i>Up until recently,</i>

369
00:18:36,283 --> 00:18:40,120
<i>most research has focused on animals</i>
<i>that remind us of ourselves.</i>

370
00:18:42,414 --> 00:18:45,083
<i>And we're just starting</i>
<i>to look beyond them.</i>

371
00:18:47,127 --> 00:18:49,462
[Bobby] <i>Any of those ways</i>
<i>you think about the octopus,</i>

372
00:18:49,546 --> 00:18:52,799
<i>it's probably as alien to the human</i>

373
00:18:52,883 --> 00:18:55,302
<i>as any other animal on the planet.</i>

374
00:18:55,385 --> 00:18:58,805
[Swank] <i>Octopuses or octopi--</i>
<i>both are correct--</i>

375
00:18:58,889 --> 00:19:03,310
<i>are part of the cephalopod group</i>
<i>and show typical signs of intelligence.</i>

376
00:19:03,393 --> 00:19:06,438
<i>Like humans and other primates and birds,</i>

377
00:19:06,521 --> 00:19:10,025
<i>they use tools like this coconut shell</i>
<i>for protection,</i>

378
00:19:10,108 --> 00:19:13,195
<i>and even carry tools with them</i>
<i>for future use,</i>

379
00:19:13,278 --> 00:19:16,573
<i>meaning they are planners</i>
<i>like the Clark's Nutcracker.</i>

380
00:19:16,656 --> 00:19:19,117
<i>They recognize individual people,</i>

381
00:19:19,201 --> 00:19:23,205
<i>and they take an interest in new things,</i>
<i>like this camera.</i>

382
00:19:23,288 --> 00:19:27,250
If you bring an unfamiliar<i> </i>object
to most wild animals,

383
00:19:27,334 --> 00:19:30,045
they're either scared of it
or they want nothing to do with it,

384
00:19:30,128 --> 00:19:32,964
whereas an octopus
often regards a piece of plastic,

385
00:19:33,048 --> 00:19:37,010
a brightly colored object of some sort,
as very interesting.

386
00:19:38,261 --> 00:19:41,640
<i>Octopuses and their cephalopod relatives,</i>
<i>cuttlefish,</i>

387
00:19:41,723 --> 00:19:44,434
<i>can also totally transform</i>
<i>the color of their skin</i>

388
00:19:44,517 --> 00:19:45,936
<i>in milliseconds,</i>

389
00:19:46,019 --> 00:19:46,978
<i>something scientists</i>

390
00:19:47,062 --> 00:19:50,232
<i>traditionally haven't considered</i>
<i>a sign of intelligence.</i>

391
00:19:50,315 --> 00:19:52,651
<i>Perhaps because humans can't do it.</i>

392
00:19:52,734 --> 00:19:54,903
That's when you know
they're gonna take over the world.

393
00:19:54,986 --> 00:19:56,613
They have eight arms and can do this.

394
00:19:56,696 --> 00:19:59,824
It's obviously something terrible
between us and octopus

395
00:19:59,908 --> 00:20:01,576
is gonna have to happen at some point.

396
00:20:01,660 --> 00:20:03,495
[chuckles]

397
00:20:03,578 --> 00:20:04,537
<i>But octopuses</i>

398
00:20:04,621 --> 00:20:07,540
<i>defy the classic correlations</i>
<i>with intelligence.</i>

399
00:20:07,624 --> 00:20:10,418
<i>They live short lives, roughly two years,</i>

400
00:20:10,502 --> 00:20:13,880
<i>and they tend to live alone,</i>
<i>not in social groups.</i>

401
00:20:13,964 --> 00:20:17,133
<i>And it's hard to even plot</i>
<i>their brain-to-body ratios</i>

402
00:20:17,217 --> 00:20:20,553
<i>because their brain and body</i>
<i>are hard to distinguish.</i>

403
00:20:20,637 --> 00:20:23,431
<i>Of their roughly 500 million neurons,</i>

404
00:20:23,515 --> 00:20:25,934
<i>2/3 are spread throughout their tentacles.</i>

405
00:20:26,017 --> 00:20:29,521
<i>That could be because they are</i>
<i>further from humans than other primates,</i>

406
00:20:29,604 --> 00:20:33,358
<i>other mammals,</i>
<i>and even birds on the evolutionary tree.</i>

407
00:20:33,441 --> 00:20:36,194
<i>Our closest ancestor wasn't smart at all.</i>

408
00:20:36,278 --> 00:20:40,198
<i>It was something like a worm</i>
<i>living 700 million years ago.</i>

409
00:20:40,282 --> 00:20:42,617
[Peter] <i>For most of the time</i>
<i>animals have been evolving,</i>

410
00:20:42,701 --> 00:20:46,621
<i>we've been on a separate path from them,</i>
<i>been on an independent track.</i>

411
00:20:46,705 --> 00:20:48,665
[Swank] <i>But many scientists</i>
<i>believe octopuses</i>

412
00:20:48,748 --> 00:20:51,918
<i>still found their way to an intelligence</i>
<i>we can recognize,</i>

413
00:20:52,002 --> 00:20:56,131
<i>which means the possibility</i>
<i>of thinking-and-feeling animals</i>

414
00:20:56,214 --> 00:20:58,633
<i>is everywhere</i>
<i>among the millions of species</i>

415
00:20:58,717 --> 00:21:00,343
<i>sharing the world with us.</i>

416
00:21:00,427 --> 00:21:04,514
We'd like to understand
what kind of place the universe is.

417
00:21:04,597 --> 00:21:07,100
One very important aspect
of that question

418
00:21:07,183 --> 00:21:10,645
is which parts of the universe
have experiences

419
00:21:10,729 --> 00:21:13,189
and have thoughts
and-and have minds?

420
00:21:13,273 --> 00:21:16,234
I mean, is it just us? Is it everything?

421
00:21:16,318 --> 00:21:18,111
Is it just some animals?

422
00:21:18,194 --> 00:21:21,614
There's just a kind of importance
inherently to a question of that sort

423
00:21:21,698 --> 00:21:24,743
if we want to understand
what kind of world we live in.

424
00:21:27,329 --> 00:21:29,331
[closing music playing]