I have heard this from everyone I know, namely that only humans can think of the future. With thinking of the future I mean the ability to project oneself in the future. Do you agree with this?
Nope, I disagree completely. There are several examples but I'll provide only the one I think is most common: Dogs anticipate a reward (a future expectation) for specific behavior.
Post # 2 proves it, but.. Or why animals run from predators (maybe they do not like their outlook). How could any animal survive without thinking of the future? Even a trip to the water dish must come with expectation.
Any animal that hordes food for later consumption when they know/assume it will be scarce... such as squirrels. Any animal that marks its territory is doing to so to try to prevent future problems with competition. Now whether this is a true thought of the future or merely an instinctive urge - not sure how you'd test it.
We humans are not so unique as we (especially religious fanatics) would like to think. We are not the only "self aware" animals (yes, we are animals too), we are not the only "tool users" and/or "builders" and we are not alone in having emotions. (Despite what Rene Descartes and his ilk thought) If there were such a thing as a "soul" or "spirit" then other animals would have those as well. I do believe that we are not just unique but likely alone in our incredible arrogance, however. Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image!
Animals differ from humans in that humans can act subjectively. While animals are objective in terms of their instincts; cause and effect. If the lion gets hungry his brain is already anticipating the future steps, such as hunting activity, which are needed to satisfy his hunger in the future. He begins hunting with every confidence he will find prey. This time projection, into the future, is occurring at the level of the unconscious mind. Animals don't have a secondary center of consciousness called the ego. Humans not only have the natural the center of the animal, but also a secondary called the ego; conscious mind. The ego/conscious mind, is not only objective but can also be subjective. The ego is like a computer terminal that has access to the larger computer(unconscious center) but can also operate apart from the mainframe. The ego terminal allows humans to depart from the natural cause and affect of the unconscious time projection. But the ego still makes use of the underlying time projection schema. If the mainframe says time to clean out the cache, the terminal can hit do this later. As an analogy, if we had the lion's time projection running, we may not even be fully conscious of it, since the ego terminal is looking elsewhere and may not fully appreciate the needs of the mainframe. But we feel the urge and may subjectively add our own interpretation for the impulse. The subjectivity is useful because it allows alternate future endings, that are out of touch with the natural cause and effect of instinct, but which might allow useful creative human modifications. We can sense the future, because the unconscious already has the pathways. We simply use that natural horse for our own subjective modification. For example, the natural future goal of sex in nature is procreation. The mainframe has this time projection. The ego terminal feels this drive to the future, but might modify this into short term fun. We feel the compulsion but may not wish to go the entire trip. The ego may not want to look that far into the future, but is satisfied with an inner loop of the mechanics of sex. Perhaps if you like the other person, you may allow the entire time projection; marriage and children. Once a mother has a child, this is her child forever. The unconscious already anticipates all the way into the future. Time is then budgeted to reflect the long term goal. There is room for subjectivity. There are additional personality firmware in the main frame beyond instinct which are the horse for other forms of time projection.
The anticipation of consequence is not the ability to think of the future. Humans choose pathways dependent upon possible outcomes; they consider alternatives, and are capable of planning for the long term. Animals have not been proven do this, other than in an extremely primitive form (such as the above mentioned anticipation of consequence). I think that's pretty much but Wellwisher said, but I'm not entirely sure.
And how do you know this? Our knowledge of human psychology and our mapping of the human brain is still at the perfunctory stage of development. Our understanding of the psychology of other species is limited to observation of their behavior, whereas we can study humans by listening to each other talk. The fact that we can talk, thereby spinning impressive yarns about our "plans" and "experiences" and "feelings" and "motivations," doesn't mean anything except that since we're humans we can study our own species in a bit more detail. It doesn't mean that other animals don't also have those things, if (perhaps) at a lesser stage of development. And perhaps not even. Two other species of ape (chimpanzee and gorilla) have learned to communicate in sign language and have surprised us with their thought processes--not to mention one teaching it to her baby. Parrots have learned to string words together in meaningful phrases, if not complete sentences. Many species of cetaceans communicate in ways that might turn out to be language if we ever become clever enough to understand them. In addition to cetaceans, many other animals practice altruism, including elephants. (Wild orcas have rescued drowning humans instead of eating them.) Your argument sounds like an exercise in human hubris. I'm surprised.
