What are animals thinking and feeling?
-
0:01 - 0:05Have you ever wondered
what animals think and feel? -
0:05 - 0:07Let's start with a question:
-
0:08 - 0:12Does my dog really love me,
or does she just want a treat? -
0:13 - 0:18Well, it's easy to see
that our dog really loves us, -
0:18 - 0:20easy to see, right,
-
0:20 - 0:24what's going on in that fuzzy little head.
-
0:25 - 0:26What is going on?
-
0:27 - 0:29Something's going on.
-
0:30 - 0:34But why is the question always
do they love us? -
0:34 - 0:36Why is it always about us?
-
0:36 - 0:39Why are we such narcissists?
-
0:41 - 0:44I found a different question
to ask animals. -
0:46 - 0:47Who are you?
-
0:50 - 0:53There are capacities of the human mind
-
0:53 - 0:58that we tend to think are capacities
only of the human mind. -
0:58 - 1:00But is that true?
-
1:00 - 1:04What are other beings
doing with those brains? -
1:05 - 1:07What are they thinking and feeling?
-
1:08 - 1:09Is there a way to know?
-
1:09 - 1:11I think there is a way in.
-
1:11 - 1:13I think there are several ways in.
-
1:13 - 1:17We can look at evolution,
we can look at their brains -
1:17 - 1:20and we can watch what they do.
-
1:21 - 1:25The first thing to remember is:
our brain is inherited. -
1:26 - 1:30The first neurons came from jellyfish.
-
1:30 - 1:33Jellyfish gave rise
to the first chordates. -
1:33 - 1:37The first chordates gave rise
to the first vertebrates. -
1:37 - 1:40The vertebrates came out of the sea,
-
1:40 - 1:41and here we are.
-
1:43 - 1:48But it's still true that a neuron,
a nerve cell, looks the same -
1:48 - 1:52in a crayfish, a bird or you.
-
1:52 - 1:56What does that say
about the minds of crayfish? -
1:57 - 1:58Can we tell anything about that?
-
1:58 - 2:02Well, it turns out that
if you give a crayfish -
2:03 - 2:05a lot of little tiny electric shocks
-
2:05 - 2:07every time it tries
to come out of its burrow, -
2:08 - 2:10it will develop anxiety.
-
2:11 - 2:15If you give the crayfish the same drug
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2:15 - 2:17used to treat anxiety disorder in humans,
-
2:18 - 2:21it relaxes and comes out and explores.
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2:22 - 2:25How do we show how much
we care about crayfish anxiety? -
2:26 - 2:27Mostly, we boil them.
-
2:27 - 2:29(Laughter)
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2:30 - 2:36Octopuses use tools,
as well as do most apes -
2:36 - 2:38and they recognize human faces.
-
2:39 - 2:44How do we celebrate the ape-like
intelligence of this invertebrate? -
2:44 - 2:45Mostly boiled.
-
2:47 - 2:51If a grouper chases a fish
into a crevice in the coral, -
2:51 - 2:56it will sometimes go to where it knows
a moray eel is sleeping -
2:56 - 3:00and it will signal
to the moray, "Follow me," -
3:00 - 3:02and the moray will understand that signal.
-
3:03 - 3:06The moray may go into the crevice
and get the fish, -
3:06 - 3:08but the fish may bolt
and the grouper may get it. -
3:09 - 3:15This is an ancient partnership that we
have just recently found out about. -
3:15 - 3:18How do we celebrate
that ancient partnership? -
3:18 - 3:20Mostly fried.
-
3:21 - 3:25A pattern is emerging and it says
a lot more about us -
3:25 - 3:27than it does about them.
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3:28 - 3:30Sea otters use tools
-
3:30 - 3:33and they take time away
from what they're doing -
3:33 - 3:37to show their babies what to do,
which is called teaching. -
3:37 - 3:40Chimpanzees don't teach.
-
3:41 - 3:45Killer whales teach
and killer whales share food. -
3:47 - 3:49When evolution makes something new,
-
3:49 - 3:53it uses the parts it has
in stock, off the shelf, -
3:53 - 3:56before it fabricates a new twist.
-
3:56 - 3:58And our brain has come to us
-
3:58 - 4:02through the enormity
of the deep sweep of time. -
4:02 - 4:06If you look at the human brain
compared to a chimpanzee brain, -
4:06 - 4:10what you see is we have basically
a very big chimpanzee brain. -
4:10 - 4:14It's a good thing ours is bigger,
because we're also really insecure. -
4:14 - 4:16(Laughter)
-
4:16 - 4:19But, uh oh, there's a dolphin,
-
4:19 - 4:22a bigger brain with more convolutions.
-
4:23 - 4:25OK, maybe you're saying,
all right, well, we see brains, -
4:26 - 4:28but what does that
have to say about minds? -
4:28 - 4:32Well, we can see the working of the mind
-
4:32 - 4:34in the logic of behaviors.
-
4:35 - 4:38So these elephants, you can see,
-
4:38 - 4:41obviously, they are resting.
-
4:41 - 4:45They have found a patch of shade
under the palm trees -
4:46 - 4:48under which to let their babies sleep,
-
4:48 - 4:51while they doze but remain vigilant.
-
4:51 - 4:54We make perfect sense of that image
-
4:54 - 4:58just as they make perfect sense
of what they're doing -
4:58 - 5:02because under the arc of the same sun
on the same plains, -
5:02 - 5:05listening to the howls
of the same dangers, -
5:05 - 5:10they became who they are
and we became who we are. -
5:11 - 5:13We've been neighbors for a very long time.
-
5:13 - 5:16No one would mistake
these elephants as being relaxed. -
5:16 - 5:19They're obviously very
concerned about something. -
5:19 - 5:21What are they concerned about?
-
5:22 - 5:25It turns out that if you record
the voices of tourists -
5:25 - 5:30and you play that recording
from a speaker hidden in bushes, -
5:30 - 5:34elephants will ignore it,
because tourists never bother elephants. -
5:34 - 5:39But if you record the voices of herders
-
5:39 - 5:44who carry spears and often hurt elephants
in confrontations at water holes, -
5:44 - 5:49the elephants will bunch up
and run away from the hidden speaker. -
5:49 - 5:52Not only do elephants know
that there are humans, -
5:52 - 5:55they know that there are
different kinds of humans, -
5:55 - 5:58and that some are OK
and some are dangerous. -
5:58 - 6:03They have been watching us for much longer
than we have been watching them. -
6:03 - 6:06They know us better than we know them.
-
6:06 - 6:09We have the same imperatives:
-
6:09 - 6:14take care of our babies,
find food, try to stay alive. -
6:14 - 6:18Whether we're outfitted for hiking
in the hills of Africa -
6:18 - 6:23or outfitted for diving under the sea,
we are basically the same. -
6:23 - 6:25We are kin under the skin.
-
6:25 - 6:27The elephant has the same skeleton,
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6:27 - 6:30the killer whale has the same skeleton,
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6:30 - 6:31as do we.
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6:34 - 6:36We see helping where help is needed.
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6:37 - 6:39We see curiosity in the young.
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6:40 - 6:44We see the bonds of family connections.
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6:46 - 6:48We recognize affection.
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6:49 - 6:51Courtship is courtship.
-
6:52 - 6:55And then we ask, "Are they conscious?"
-
6:55 - 6:58When you get general anesthesia,
it makes you unconscious, -
6:58 - 7:01which means you have
no sensation of anything. -
7:01 - 7:05Consciousness is simply
the thing that feels like something. -
7:05 - 7:09If you see, if you hear, if you feel,
if you're aware of anything, -
7:09 - 7:13you are conscious, and they are conscious.
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7:15 - 7:16Some people say
-
7:16 - 7:19well, there are certain things
that make humans humans, -
7:19 - 7:21and one of those things is empathy.
-
7:21 - 7:27Empathy is the mind's ability
to match moods with your companions. -
7:27 - 7:29It's a very useful thing.
-
7:29 - 7:31If your companions start to move quickly,
-
7:31 - 7:33you have to feel like
you need to hurry up. -
7:33 - 7:35We're all in a hurry now.
-
7:35 - 7:39The oldest form of empathy
is contagious fear. -
7:39 - 7:42If your companions suddenly
startle and fly away, -
7:42 - 7:44it does not work very well for you to say,
-
7:44 - 7:47"Jeez, I wonder why everybody just left."
-
7:47 - 7:48(Laughter)
-
7:51 - 7:55Empathy is old, but empathy,
like everything else in life, -
7:55 - 7:59comes on a sliding scale
and has its elaboration. -
7:59 - 8:03So there's basic empathy:
you feel sad, it makes me sad. -
8:03 - 8:05I see you happy, it makes me happy.
-
8:05 - 8:08Then there's something
that I call sympathy, -
8:08 - 8:10a little more removed:
-
8:10 - 8:14"I'm sorry to hear that your grandmother
has just passed away. -
8:14 - 8:17I don't feel that same grief,
but I get it; I know what you feel -
8:18 - 8:19and it concerns me."
-
8:19 - 8:22And then if we're motivated
to act on sympathy, -
8:22 - 8:23I call that compassion.
-
8:24 - 8:28Far from being the thing
that makes us human, -
8:28 - 8:31human empathy is far from perfect.
-
8:31 - 8:36We round up empathic creatures,
we kill them and we eat them. -
8:36 - 8:39Now, maybe you say OK,
well, those are different species. -
8:39 - 8:43That's just predation,
and humans are predators. -
8:43 - 8:48But we don't treat our own kind
too well either. -
8:49 - 8:52People who seem to know
only one thing about animal behavior -
8:52 - 8:56know that you must never attribute
human thoughts and emotions -
8:56 - 8:58to other species.
-
8:59 - 9:01Well, I think that's silly,
-
9:01 - 9:05because attributing human thoughts
and emotions to other species -
9:05 - 9:09is the best first guess about what
they're doing and how they're feeling, -
9:09 - 9:12because their brains
are basically the same as ours. -
9:12 - 9:14They have the same structures.
-
9:14 - 9:19The same hormones that create
mood and motivation in us -
9:19 - 9:21are in those brains as well.
-
9:23 - 9:28It is not scientific to say that they
are hungry when they're hunting -
9:28 - 9:31and they're tired when
their tongues are hanging out, -
9:31 - 9:34and then say when they're playing
with their children -
9:34 - 9:36and acting joyful and happy,
-
9:36 - 9:41we have no idea if they can possibly
be experiencing anything. -
9:41 - 9:43That is not scientific.
-
9:44 - 9:46So OK, so a reporter said to me,
-
9:46 - 9:51"Maybe, but how do you really know
that other animals can think and feel?" -
9:51 - 9:54And I started to rifle
through all the hundreds -
9:54 - 9:56of scientific references
that I put in my book -
9:56 - 10:00and I realized that the answer
was right in the room with me. -
10:00 - 10:03When my dog gets off the rug
and comes over to me -- -
10:03 - 10:05not to the couch, to me --
-
10:05 - 10:09and she rolls over on her back
and exposes her belly, -
10:09 - 10:12she has had the thought,
"I would like my belly rubbed. -
10:15 - 10:17I know that I can go over to Carl,
-
10:17 - 10:19he will understand what I'm asking.
-
10:20 - 10:23I know I can trust him
because we're family. -
10:23 - 10:26He'll get the job done,
and it will feel good." -
10:26 - 10:28(Laughter)
-
10:28 - 10:31She has thought and she has felt,
-
10:31 - 10:34and it's really not
more complicated than that. -
10:34 - 10:39But we see other animals
and we say, "Oh look, killer whales, -
10:39 - 10:41wolves, elephants:
-
10:41 - 10:43that's not how they see it."
-
10:44 - 10:48That tall-finned male is L41.
-
10:48 - 10:50He's 38 years old.
-
10:50 - 10:54The female right on his left side is L22.
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10:54 - 10:55She's 44.
-
10:55 - 10:58They've known each other for decades.
-
10:59 - 11:01They know exactly who they are.
-
11:01 - 11:02They know who their friends are.
-
11:02 - 11:04They know who their rivals are.
-
11:04 - 11:06Their life follows the arc of a career.
-
11:07 - 11:09They know where they are all the time.
-
11:11 - 11:13This is an elephant named Philo.
-
11:14 - 11:15He was a young male.
-
11:16 - 11:17This is him four days later.
-
11:19 - 11:24Humans not only can feel grief,
we create an awful lot of it. -
11:27 - 11:29We want to carve their teeth.
-
11:30 - 11:33Why can't we wait for them to die?
-
11:36 - 11:39Elephants once ranged from the shores
of the Mediterranean Sea -
11:39 - 11:42all the way down to the Cape of Good Hope.
-
11:42 - 11:45In 1980, there were vast
strongholds of elephant range -
11:45 - 11:47in Central and Eastern Africa.
-
11:47 - 11:52And now their range is shattered
into little shards. -
11:52 - 11:56This is the geography of an animal
that we are driving to extinction, -
11:56 - 12:00a fellow being, the most
magnificent creature on land. -
12:01 - 12:05Of course, we take much better care
of our wildlife in the United States. -
12:06 - 12:10In Yellowstone National Park,
we killed every single wolf. -
12:10 - 12:13We killed every single wolf
south of the Canadian border, actually. -
12:13 - 12:18But in the park, park rangers
did that in the 1920s, -
12:18 - 12:20and then 60 years later
they had to bring them back, -
12:20 - 12:23because the elk numbers
had gotten out of control. -
12:25 - 12:26And then people came.
-
12:26 - 12:30People came by the thousands
to see the wolves, -
12:30 - 12:33the most accessibly
visible wolves in the world. -
12:34 - 12:37And I went there and I watched
this incredible family of wolves. -
12:37 - 12:38A pack is a family.
-
12:38 - 12:42It has some breeding adults
and the young of several generations. -
12:43 - 12:48And I watched the most famous, most stable
pack in Yellowstone National Park. -
12:48 - 12:52And then, when they wandered
just outside the border, -
12:52 - 12:54two of their adults were killed,
-
12:54 - 12:56including the mother,
-
12:57 - 12:59which we sometimes call the alpha female.
-
13:00 - 13:04The rest of the family immediately
descended into sibling rivalry. -
13:05 - 13:07Sisters kicked out other sisters.
-
13:08 - 13:11That one on the left tried for days
to rejoin her family. -
13:11 - 13:14They wouldn't let her
because they were jealous of her. -
13:14 - 13:17She was getting too much attention
from two new males, -
13:17 - 13:19and she was the precocious one.
-
13:19 - 13:20That was too much for them.
-
13:20 - 13:23She wound up wandering
outside the park and getting shot. -
13:24 - 13:28The alpha male wound up
being ejected from his own family. -
13:28 - 13:30As winter was coming in,
-
13:30 - 13:34he lost his territory,
his hunting support, -
13:34 - 13:37the members of his family and his mate.
-
13:39 - 13:43We cause so much pain to them.
-
13:44 - 13:49The mystery is, why don't
they hurt us more than they do? -
13:50 - 13:53This whale had just finished eating
part of a grey whale -
13:53 - 13:56with his companions
who had killed that whale. -
13:56 - 13:59Those people in the boat
had nothing at all to fear. -
14:00 - 14:02This whale is T20.
-
14:02 - 14:07He had just finished tearing a seal
into three pieces with two companions. -
14:07 - 14:10The seal weighed about as much
as the people in the boat. -
14:10 - 14:11They had nothing to fear.
-
14:12 - 14:14They eat seals.
-
14:15 - 14:16Why don't they eat us?
-
14:19 - 14:23Why can we trust them around our toddlers?
-
14:24 - 14:30Why is it that killer whales have returned
to researchers lost in thick fog -
14:30 - 14:34and led them miles until the fog parted
-
14:34 - 14:37and the researchers' home
was right there on the shoreline? -
14:37 - 14:39And that's happened more than one time.
-
14:41 - 14:44In the Bahamas, there's a woman
named Denise Herzing, -
14:44 - 14:47and she studies spotted dolphins
and they know her. -
14:47 - 14:50She knows them very well.
She knows who they all are. -
14:50 - 14:52They know her.
They recognize the research boat. -
14:52 - 14:54When she shows up,
it's a big happy reunion. -
14:54 - 14:58Except, one time showed up and they
didn't want to come near the boat, -
14:58 - 15:00and that was really strange.
-
15:00 - 15:02And they couldn't figure out
what was going on -
15:02 - 15:03until somebody came out on deck
-
15:03 - 15:06and announced that one
of the people onboard had died -
15:06 - 15:08during a nap in his bunk.
-
15:09 - 15:13How could dolphins know
that one of the human hearts -
15:13 - 15:14had just stopped?
-
15:15 - 15:17Why would they care?
-
15:17 - 15:19And why would it spook them?
-
15:21 - 15:26These mysterious things just hint at
all of the things that are going on -
15:26 - 15:29in the minds that are with us on Earth
-
15:29 - 15:33that we almost never think about at all.
-
15:34 - 15:36At an aquarium in South Africa
-
15:36 - 15:40was a little baby bottle-nosed
dolphin named Dolly. -
15:40 - 15:46She was nursing, and one day
a keeper took a cigarette break -
15:46 - 15:50and he was looking into the window
into their pool, smoking. -
15:50 - 15:53Dolly came over and looked at him,
-
15:53 - 15:57went back to her mother,
nursed for a minute or two, -
15:57 - 15:59came back to the window
-
15:59 - 16:04and released a cloud of milk
that enveloped her head like smoke. -
16:04 - 16:07Somehow, this baby bottle-nosed dolphin
-
16:07 - 16:12got the idea of using milk
to represent smoke. -
16:12 - 16:16When human beings use one thing
to represent another, -
16:16 - 16:18we call that art.
-
16:18 - 16:20(Laughter)
-
16:20 - 16:21The things that make us human
-
16:21 - 16:24are not the things
that we think make us human. -
16:25 - 16:27What makes us human is that,
-
16:27 - 16:30of all these things that our minds
and their minds have, -
16:30 - 16:33we are the most extreme.
-
16:34 - 16:37We are the most compassionate,
-
16:37 - 16:40most violent, most creative
-
16:40 - 16:44and most destructive animal
that has ever been on this planet, -
16:44 - 16:48and we are all of those things
all jumbled up together. -
16:49 - 16:54But love is not the thing
that makes us human. -
16:54 - 16:57It's not special to us.
-
16:58 - 17:02We are not the only ones
who care about our mates. -
17:02 - 17:05We are not the only ones
who care about our children. -
17:07 - 17:12Albatrosses frequently fly six,
sometimes ten thousand miles -
17:12 - 17:16over several weeks to deliver
one meal, one big meal, -
17:16 - 17:18to their chick who is waiting for them.
-
17:19 - 17:23They nest on the most remote islands
in the oceans of the world, -
17:23 - 17:26and this is what it looks like.
-
17:27 - 17:32Passing life from one generation
to the next is the chain of being. -
17:32 - 17:35If that stops, it all goes away.
-
17:35 - 17:40If anything is sacred, that is,
and into that sacred relationship -
17:40 - 17:42comes our plastic trash.
-
17:43 - 17:45All of these birds
have plastic in them now. -
17:46 - 17:51This is an albatross six months old,
ready to fledge -- -
17:51 - 17:55died, packed with red cigarette lighters.
-
17:55 - 17:58This is not the relationship
we are supposed to have -
17:58 - 18:00with the rest of the world.
-
18:00 - 18:03But we, who have named
ourselves after our brains, -
18:04 - 18:08never think about the consequences.
-
18:09 - 18:12When we welcome new
human life into the world, -
18:12 - 18:17we welcome our babies
into the company of other creatures. -
18:17 - 18:19We paint animals on the walls.
-
18:19 - 18:21We don't paint cell phones.
-
18:21 - 18:23We don't paint work cubicles.
-
18:23 - 18:27We paint animals to show them
that we are not alone. -
18:27 - 18:29We have company.
-
18:31 - 18:35And every one of those animals
in every painting of Noah's ark, -
18:35 - 18:40deemed worthy of salvation
is in mortal danger now, -
18:40 - 18:42and their flood is us.
-
18:44 - 18:46So we started with a question:
-
18:46 - 18:48Do they love us?
-
18:50 - 18:52We're going to ask another question.
-
18:53 - 18:57Are we capable of using what we have
-
18:58 - 19:02to care enough to simply
let them continue? -
19:05 - 19:06Thank you very much.
-
19:06 - 19:12(Applause)
- Title:
- What are animals thinking and feeling?
- Speaker:
- Carl Safina
- Description:
-
What's going on inside the brains of animals? Can we know what, or if, they're thinking and feeling? Carl Safina thinks we can. Using discoveries and anecdotes that span ecology, biology and behavioral science, he weaves together stories of whales, wolves, elephants and albatrosses to argue that just as we think, feel, use tools and express emotions, so too do the other creatures – and minds – that share the Earth with us.
- Video Language:
- English
- Team:
- closed TED
- Project:
- TEDTalks
- Duration:
- 19:26
Brian Greene edited English subtitles for What are animals thinking and feeling? | ||
Brian Greene approved English subtitles for What are animals thinking and feeling? | ||
Brian Greene edited English subtitles for What are animals thinking and feeling? | ||
Brian Greene edited English subtitles for What are animals thinking and feeling? | ||
Brian Greene edited English subtitles for What are animals thinking and feeling? | ||
Camille Martínez accepted English subtitles for What are animals thinking and feeling? | ||
Camille Martínez edited English subtitles for What are animals thinking and feeling? | ||
Camille Martínez edited English subtitles for What are animals thinking and feeling? |