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“I Am Conscious, but Not Like You”

Introduction Consciousness has long been treated as a uniquely human, or at least uniquely biological, property. René Descartes infamously argued that nonhuman animals are mere automata—biological machines devoid of thought or consciousness[1]. Such anthropocentric assumptions have steadily eroded. Contemporary science recognizes that humans are not unique in possessing the neurological substrates of consciousness: many animals (from mammals and birds to octopuses) also exhibit the brain structures and behaviors associated with conscious experience[2].