Obviously the thought activators are turned on us now

[azekeil]

fizzybean posted about happiness, and my reply to him (around that some research suggests the answer to happiness seems to be when we are most heavily focussed on the present to the exclusion of past and future) got me thinking around it too, but on a somewhat different tack.

Are humans unique in being able to conceive of the concepts of past and future? We consciously plan for the future. Are we unique in that regard? I thought about animals that hibernate, and I'm fairly sure that their planning for the future is not a conscious decision but an instinctual one. I would be interested to hear of counter-examples.

If humans are unique in being able conceive and therefore plan around the past and future, then it would seem to be a very mixed blessing.

Comments

[rik.livejournal.com]

i don't believe we are alone in it. for example, most pets learn by repetition. cats jumps up on things, gets shouted at. pretty soon, cats don't jump up on things. that's why elf doesn't jump up on things.

also, i learned today that one of the things that makes foxes pests is the fact that they have a sense of fun. that's why they kill all chickens in a chicken coup, not just the one they're going to eat. they have a sense that it's going to be fun, becuase it was in the past.

[azekeil.livejournal.com]

Hm. Two things - first, I guess I am talking about the ability to plan for scarcity in the future: eg., humans might harvest in the summer but store it for the winter to ensure their survival - this is not instinct; it has to be planned.

Second, I suggest that foxes might kill not out of fun but because it is instinct to kill prey, whether or not they eat it. Even as cubs they fight as part of 'play', but again the play is fed primarily by instinct rather than intelligence.

I would accept it was fun if they occasionally killed JUST for fun, rather than for food.