of that principle of self-paced probing of the surroundings, I am 

 going to suggest that the existence of play among the members of 

 a species is possibly the best indication we could have that con- 

 sciousness is present. Why otherwise would the young of a species 

 "waste" their time cavorting and gamboling about. A zombie 

 wouldn't be caught dead indulging in such seemingly useless activ- 

 ity! But it's just the sort of thing that individuals would do if they 

 are able to learn new tricks by periodically challenging their envi- 

 ronments to produce novel feedback. I do not have exhaustive data 

 on this point, but it seems to me that all mammals play, and my 

 guess is that they all possess consciousness. This means, inter alia, 

 that they must all be able to experience pain. It behoves us to be 

 kind and caring toward them. 



In sum, then, there seem to be ample rewards for taking the di- 

 ametrically opposite view to the one embodied in the venerable stim- 

 ulus-response paradigm. It is a surprising story, but I believe that 

 Aristotle and Descartes would have found it intriguing. 



Acknowledgments 



It is a pleasure to thank Ian Tattersall for the invitation to present 

 this talk, and both him and Ken Mowbray for everything they did 

 to make my involvement in the James Arthur series such a reward- 

 ing and enjoyable experience. The research that provided the basis 

 for the talk was supported by the Danish Natural Science Research 

 Council, and I am most grateful to them. 



REFERENCES 



Baddeley, A.D.. and G.J. Hitch 



1974. Working memory. //; G.H. Bower (ed.). The Psychology of Learning and 

 Motivation 8: 47-89. New York: Academic Press. 

 Bain. A. 



1868. The Senses and the Intellect. London: Longmans, Green & Co. 

 Berg. H.C. 



1993. Random Walks in Biology. Chichester: Princeton University Press. 

 Block, N. 



2002. The harder problem of consciousness. Journal of Philosophy 99(8): 1-35. 

 Carpenter. R.H.S. 



1999. A neural mechanism that randomises behaviour. Journal of Consciousness 

 Studies 6: 13-22. 



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