if_brain_size_affects_consciousness andru235 then do people with smaller heads have a dimmer sense of existing than those with larger heads? if the human reality is a bright room, owing to our large brain, then is the reality of a hen a tiny room of shadows? or is real-ness equally present to a hen or a cat as it is to a human? of course the facts we know are different...but cats and hens know facts also. chickens become distressed when the egg they laid yesterday suddenly has disappeared, as would a mother to yesterdays baby. i have lived with cats and plants for many years. it seems totally preposterous that i am more conscious of existing than either the cats or the plants. yet, to someone else, it seems totally preposterous that cats or plants could be conscious of existing at all. so they say it is our brain, our large human brain. which would mean that having a bigger head than someone else makes one more conscious...i just don't buy it. and i have a big head! but i have known people with smaller heads who have a bigger head than i! 050904 ... random troll girls might tell you the size of your head doesn't count, but they are just trying to console you. 050904 ... stork daddy well the fact is that the complexity and organization of the brain matters quite a bit. the smaller the brain, however, the more difficult it is to have complex organization. also when people talk about brain size, they generally mean in proportion to their body size. in all of the animals in which "higher intelligence" has been observed, there's a pretty decent brain to body ratio. so even a human with a really small brain has a much larger brain to body ratio than a big brained cat. either way, we could never with all certainty say that a cat isn't experiencing a rich colorful dream world far more complex than our own. but this would be based on all speculation and very little observation. i refuse to be like president bush and "create my own reality". because it's that kind of thinking that allows 51% of the vote to magically become a mandate. 050904 what's it to you? who go blather from