Not long ago one of our guests asked to show us something. We thought he intended to recommend a book he believed should be offered in our bookshop.
We were wrong. It was a 1 1/2-page Declaration that animals are conscious and are capable of experiencing positive and negative emotions. The guest, Philip Low, who hosted the 2012 Francis Crick Memorial Conference, at Churchill College, Cambridge University, thought we might want to see the first draft of the Declaration signed in the presence of Stepen Hawking by a prominent group of cognitive neuroscientists, neuropharmacologists, neurophysiologists, neuroanatomists and computational neuroscientists. Citing recent research, they stated….
“The absence of a neocortex does not appear to preclude an organism from experiencing affective states. Convergent evidence indicates that non-human animals have the neuroanatomical, neurochemical, and neurophysiological substrates of conscious states along with the capacity to exhibit intentional behaviors. Consequently, the weight of evidence indicates that humans are not unique in possessing the neurological substrates that generate consciousness. Non-human animals, including all mammals and birds, and many other creatures, including octopuses†, also possess these neurological substrates.”
Simply stated, vertebrates and other animals are conscious. They feel pain and joy, loss and satisfaction, fear and pleasure.
Photo: Joan and Jeff delicately holding the Cambridge Declaration.
We believe this to be a wonderful Valentine! It is the beginning of a significant change in human attitudes toward other lives!
Happy Valentine’s Day and thank you to Philip Low and his colleagues!
Joan and Jeff