Do Honeybees Feel?
Gorman, James. "Do Honeybees Feel? Scientists Are Entertaining the Idea."The New York Times. The New York Times, 18 Apr. 2016. Web. 19 Apr. 2016.
Recently, neuroscientists and philosophers alike have begun to ponder consciousness and where it ends, ultimately coming to the question ‘where does consciousness end?’. Christof Koch, the president and chief scientific officer of the Allen Institute for Brain Science in Seattle, and Giulio Tononi, a neuroscientist and psychiatrist at the University of Wisconsin, have radically proposed that consciousness is nearly ubiquitous in different degrees, and can be present even in nonliving arrangements of matter, to varying degrees -- however, most scientists take a less radical perspective. For example, Andrew B. Barron (a cognitive scientist) and Colin Klein (a philosopher) at Macquarie University in Sydney, Australia believe that even insects have the capacity for insects. Dr. Barron and Dr. Klein derive their hypothesis on the conclusion that “[consciousness] is an inherent property of physical systems in which information moves around in a certain way — and that could include some kinds of artificial intelligence and even naturally occurring nonliving matter.” More specifically, the two scientists have found that structural similarities between the midbrains of humans and insects supports their hypothesis. In humans, the midbrain “can, on its own, give a person lacking more advanced parts of the brain simple awareness.” In insects, the midbrain holds a similar function; it absorbs information from stimuli, memory, and the body in order to respond appropriately. Consequently, these two scientists believe in a spectrum of awareness. “At the most basic level, consciousness is awareness,” explain Dr. Barron and Dr. Klein. On the other end of the spectrum would be the sensation of pain, which only more advanced species such as crabs and octopi can feel.
This article caught my eye because it is extremely relevant to our work in class. The article uses the nervous system and its responses to stimuli to help define consciousness at a very basic level. However, this article is also relevant with respect to society as a whole. This article serves to further stress the importance of animal right protection, as we saw in Food, Inc., by establishing the existence of their consciousness. With this discovery, animals serve as far more than just another food source, and we should do our best to respect their conscious existence.
I enjoyed reading this article primarily due to how interesting I found the topic. I also found that it was well written and thoroughly researched, as expected from a reputable source like the New York Times. The one area I felt that the article was lacking was in its explanations: both the explanation of the spectrum of consciousness and the explanation of consciousness in the human brain were underdeveloped. Nevertheless, I would recommend reading this article because the findings are truly fascinating.
Ford Neild April 20th, 2016
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Dear Trevor,
I felt that, overall, you explained the article in very concise manner without skipping over any of the essential details, as many people often do when summarizing. First, you were able to support your claim by inserting statistics and facts from the article, something that many people struggle with in these current events. Prior to reading your summary I would have never guess that honeybees were conscience and your statics helped me consider this fascinating possibility. Second, you described the scientist’s viewpoint in a very interesting way that held the reader's attention. Often people do not sound passionate when arguing scientists opinions, but you did a fantastic job of that in this description. One reason you were able to do this is through the use of the quote,”[consciousness] is an inherent property of physical systems in which information moves around in a certain way — and that could include some kinds of artificial intelligence and even naturally occurring nonliving matter”. It helped add a scientist's description that further captured the reader and added a new perspective. Thirdly, your descriptive vocabulary showed real depth of understanding on your part and added additional detail that helped to create a clear image of this previously confusing article.
Though, overall this article was very well written, there is room for improvement yet. Previously, I had commented that your descriptive vocabulary was intelligent and descriptive, however, for many of these words, they were too complex. To fix this, I recommend putting in parentheses the definition of the word. For example, I was not familiar with the term, midbrain. After doing personal research I found that The midbrain or mesencephalon is a portion of the central nervous system associated with vision, hearing, motor control, sleep/wake, arousal (alertness), and temperature regulation. In your relevance paragraph, you consistently mention that honey bee consciousness could further the animal rights movement. I was disappointed that you did not give specific examples of how this might be the case. If these were not mentioned in the article, I recommend doing independent research in order to fix this issue.
From your summary I learned a lot. Specifically, I was amazed by all of the different proposed types of consciousness. Personally, I have always wondered what the seemingly arbitrary definition of conscience was, so this article helped clarify this issue. As previously mentioned, prior to reading this article I would have never guessed that small animals such as honey bee and even some non living matter could potentially be conscience. More importantly this helped me realize a much broader truth: There is so little we can really say for sure about the brain, but as studies progress it has become clear that all animals are much more complex than we thought and they should not be taken for granted.
Gorman, James. "Do Honeybees Feel? Scientists Are Entertaining the Idea."The New York Times. The New York Times, 18 Apr. 2016. Web. 19 Apr. 2016.
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/04/19/science/honeybees-insects-consciousness-brains.html?_r=0