Memories

A recent book club pick,The Memory of an Elephant, had me thinking about a topic on which I have commented in the past, the nature of consciousness. In brief, the story is a fictionalized account of the life of an African elephant from birth to death, as told by the humans with which he interacted and through his own thoughts and memories. While the author clearly took some liberty in ascribing specific thoughts to the central character, ethologists who have studied Elephant behavior in the wild confirm much of what the author suggests. It appears that Elephants do have a prodigious memory, remembering others of their kind, places they have been, where they have found food or water, and indeed the humans they have encountered.

Elephants exhibit mourning behavior at the loss of a member of their herd or family, and recognize both distinct human and Elephant identities often at great distances. While their language is not discernible to us it is structured, and recognizable. Admittedly it seems a stretch to advance these observations as evidence of a human like sense of consciousness but bear with me.

If we are to accept the idea that animals, at least some species, possess human like consciousness we must first judge them self aware, not simply aware of their environment which might be instinctual, but as distinct and individual beings. We do not observe such behavior broadly across the animal kingdom but largely among some mammals and avians exclusively.

Beyond exhibiting intelligence and self awareness, consciousness requires several other aptitudes; behavioral flexibility, episodic memory, intentionality, and the capacity to attribute thoughts, beliefs and intentions to one's self and others. When we apply these criteria to the observed behavior of wild elephants we can that they are clearly adaptive, modifying their reactions toward other animals and members of their species as well as humans based on prior experience, and not merely instinct. The old homily that Elephants never forget is in fact true. Not only do Elephants' memories span their lifetime, they incorporate those recollections into their present behavior, a learned not an instinctual response.

We cannot say with certainty that Elephants possess an awareness of the thoughts of others but their interactions with humans and other species are indicative of intentional thought--that is they do not simply act or react but display a response that appears to be the consequence of a reasoning process. They are not governed solely by limbic flight or fright. On the contrary, they often display curiosity and decision making capacity as well as something that approaches a sense of humor.

You might ask where I am headed with this brief dissertation on Pachyderms. While you might find this a shocking statement if we accept the notion of Elephant consciousness what does it say about us? As I began to think of Elephants as conscious beings a number of questions came to mind:

• Do Elephants imagine?

• Do Elephants think about their own existence--do they wonder about their purpose?

• Do Elephants possess an innate sense of right and wrong, is there Elephant morality?

• Do Elephants have souls?

  
  

I promise you I am not being intentionally flip or baiting you dear reader. Such questions seem reasonable to ask in response to the assertions of philosophers, psychologists, preachers and pundits who define humans as superior among all species by a criteria that is at best subjective. I'd go so far as to suggest that our meager certitude about the nature of life and death, of morality, of our own existence, should lead us less to firm conclusions than more questions. It is only through questioning ourselves, our experiences and observations that anything is ever learned, and anything new revealed.

I leave it to you to ask your own questions, about Elephants, about humans, about the nature of life itself, but with one last tantalizing question to mull over: what is the purpose of memory?