Koko the Gorilla, especially of interest to Sharla and Pacfan

[Kev]

Of course animals understand love! Haven't we all read stories about dogs who die trying to save their owners?!?! Isn't that love - that's not self preservation for sure!

What do you think the look on Koko's face was as she was getting spun around on the chair was - emotion - she was having the time of her life!

Why do you think dogs are so damn excited to see you whenever you get home?

Some animals mate for life - what's that if not love?

What about gorillas that have been known to protect kids that fall into their enclosures?

Animals appreciate more simple pleasures than us. I don't think that means that they are less capable of love - if anything it means they're MORE capable. They worry less and waste less emotional energy on crap like money!

Yeah I think you might be right. I guess animals experiences much more pure emotions than we do. I mean if a dog is happy that's probably all it feels, happiness. Unlike ourselves who can feel happy in the moment but also at the same time we self conscious about displaying our happiness, guilty because we feel happy, or have a range of other thoughts and emotions running through our heads at the same time like future anxiety or past regrets etc.

I don't know if you watched that long second video right through yet but what impressed me most was how Koko actually invented her own words and vocabulary to describe things she had not been given a name for.

In the video it explains how she saw a ring, an object that she had not had identified to her before and described it by mixing two words known to her finger and bracelet and putting them together to call it a finger bracelet.

Now I don't want to get carried away as I guess there's always the possibility of human's however objective to anthropomorphise animals and exaggerate their ability to think but if she really did manage that then that is pretty amazing!

I wonder if she is able to seperate herself from others and has a genuine I and You understanding and if she is capable of realising that her own experience is different from others?

When I studied psychology we learned that many autistic people cannot seperate their own experience from that of others. For example if an autistic child placed an object inside a box they would assume that other people who wern't in the room would still know where the object was because of their own experience of having placed it.

What would be most intriguing of all is whether Koko or any other animal can demonstrate self awareness and the fact that they exist rather than not exist. If Koko is capable of understanding that she is a created being and showed signs of questioning where she came from that would be absolutely mind blowing.

I'm definitely going to research more into this, as I think it's fascinating.