I am curious…

I am curious…
Obviously being " self-aware " is biological because we all get it from our parents.
There is never a question if a baby is going to be self aware or not… It's not some random mutation at this point.
So, Since 99% of our DNA is the same as DNA from a monkey… Has anyone isolated the "self-aware gene"?
I would think that since we are getting good at turning on/off genes and messing with DNA someone would have tried to click that specific genetic marker "on" in a monkey or dog or something.

Go study genetics and figure it out.

You really think we have answers such as these on here?

Just post more porn.

There is no self aware gene. Self awareness come from consciousness which is what makes us human and separate from all the other animals of the world. Scientist cannot explain what consciousness is

trying to define "self" or "consciousness" is like trying to figure out how a drill gun works, but the only tools you have are other drill guns.

its hard to use a brain to figure out a brain in other words. you would need the next thing better to see how a brain works.

But if it's only a human thing... it clearly HAS to come from something that is biological in nature and should be something we find missing in other biological entities.

It's not biological. Our bodies and brains are biological but consciousness has no biological organ or entity it derives from. If it was connected biologically all species with a brain would be as self aware as we are. It's like trying to say love isn't real because there is no love organ in our body

Very few behaviors that we engage in have a single gene that can be pointed to as the cause of their behaviors. I don't want to be the "environment is just as important as biology" guy, but your question discounts the significant influence that the enviornment has on shaping up what we call self-aware behaviors.

What does it mean to be self aware? Does that describe the behaviors of being able to label your other behaviors and thoughts? To know how acting a particular way will affect you? I am sure there are more minute definitions, but the term is a collection of different responses that we engage in. All of those little responses need to contact reinforcement or are unlikely to continue being emitted.

I would argue that everyone is "self aware" to a different extent. Some of these responses are shaped up more in some than in others. Whether that is because of their physiological sensitivity to the reinforcers associated with engaging in self-aware responses or simply them being taught better or not as well, I can only guess...

Regardless, your question assumes that there is a single gene and not a complex system of environment and gene interactions.

Environment > Biology anyday

>citation needed.
Where is your proof that other animals are not self aware?

Different aspects of human culture have been selected for, and I would guess that one is encouraging a strong "sense" of self awareness.

You have a false equivalency here. The environment of most nonhumans differs significantly from the environment of humans. What gives rise and maintains self awareness in each population is likely to be slightly, if not entirely, different, and that is likely to lead to differences in how those behaviors are displayed, but that does not mean that these behaviors do not occur in both populations.

Primates have an astounding level of self awareness. They laugh, cry, mourn, coddle, everything you would expect from a self aware creature. How do we know this? Because they literally talk to us in sign language.

Very true. It's been proven in many studies that cells are directly affected by environment. Even plants have been proven to grow differently just by having ppl say negative or positive things to the plants throughout its life cycle

It all goes back the environment any way. You can pinpoint the genes responsible for you saying "hello" when someone greets you, but your genes are expressed as a function of what you or your ancestors have encountered in the environment. Behaviors that lead to successful outcomes are reinforced and persist. Behaviors that don't either lead to the death of the organism or are extinguished. You say hello because you observed others saying hello and engaging in social interactions (desires for most people) or because when you have not said hello in the past after someone greeted you, aversive consequences followed and now you avoid those consequences. I'm sure biology plays a part, but more as locus of the environment.

We don`t know what self aware is

Primates have emotions but cannot explain what emotions are. That's the difference. The sign language thing is just them regurgitating what they are shown. They cannot form an original thought outside of instinct

prove that humans can - you cant
now prove that there is free will
also give a definition of self aware

you are full of shit
no go wither

Do some real research on a subject before you open your simple mouth summer fags

Humans are not the only animals that are self aware. Most great apes, some Corvids, and many Cetaceans are self aware. The most common test is called the "mirror test." Essentially if an animal recognizes that it is looking at a reflection of itself, then it is "self aware"

so you have free will?? tell me more

Explain the meaning of free will first if you can

This is impossible, it's not genetics, it's not something we can control.

God gave us the soul, and by extension, consciousness and this 'self-awareness' you mention.

hahahha thats what i am saying,
i think we are on the same team.

free will would be the inability to predict the future

so like if you play a human in chess, you cant tell the next move they will make

if you play a computer in chess you can tell what it will do if you know the programming source.

i believe that you can predict what we will do, we jut do not know the source code yet.

same with all things in the universe, if you know the state of all matter you can predict the future.

we are just a chemical reaction.

>Since 99% of our DNA is the same as DNA from a monkey
the thing is it's also a huge portion of that is the same DNA as other things too, it's not just like monkey DNA.

That is very true.

Scientists are able to predict the positions of stars and planets with crazy precision because they can measure their size, position, trajectory, etc.

If we can have the same measurements for each air particle on earth, we can in theory predict every single weather even from now to the end of time.

The same thing with humans, if we can predict which neurons are going to fire, which hormones are going to be released, which senses are going to be stimulated, etc. We'd be able to predict a persons actions to the blink. But that requires an unimaginable processing speed and crazy amount of data which we are far from being able to collect.

brofist

It's just how smart we are, but then there's the problem with defining smart.

99% of our dna isnt just from apes. We share dna sequences with trees, fish, birds, etc. Basically everything we humans are is a series of snippits of some other genetic sequence from some other living thing.

Isn't every living thing self aware to some extent? Depending on what body/species it occupies, it will have the capacity to process thoughts. The brain is just a tool for the soul to choose

ITT ignorant circle jerking

I think you're confusing sentience and sapience.

If you're jerkin it in a circle with a bunch of dudes, I think its best to be ignorant about the whole event.