An Unintelligent Way of Being Intelligent

There is no longer any point in conducting laborious analyses or grappling with subtle metaphysical nuances. Consciousness is like the dust behind the fridge. We know it’s there, but we don’t bother dealing with it.

However, as convenient as it may be to pretend regarding “what we do and what we know,” the time has come to see it all. It seems someone or something is pulling the plug, and the blackened void of the human condition is revealed.

What We Know

Animals have proven consciousness: From the 2012 Cambridge Declaration to the 2024 New York Declaration, leading neuroscientists agree: mammals, birds, octopuses, fish, and even insects possess the neurological substrates for subjective experience. They feel pain, joy, and stress; they possess self-awareness within their environment.

The “Intelligence” of Plants: Although neurobiologists still hesitate to use the word “consciousness” for plants (due to the absence of a central nervous system), what we are discovering is staggering. Plants communicate with each other via underground fungal networks, react to danger, “hear” the sound of water or insects eating them, and share resources. Their complexity is a form of decentralized intelligence that shatters the idea that they are merely “inert objects.”

In short, the presence of consciousness at a substantially higher level—however you choose to contemplate it—directly challenges the “intelligence” of the “racist” logic that limits consciousness to a single species.

Therefore, consciousness is not only not a human privilege, but it is something that eludes human intelligence altogether. The scientific community, however belatedly, is beginning to stammer out what even an intelligent robot would perceive: The idea that humans hold a monopoly on consciousness is collapsing under the weight of the data.

On one hand, we are “dumb” enough not to understand it; yet, on the other, we are “smart” enough to manufacture “technical” excuses to arbitrarily claim that plants, animals, and certain “other humans” lack consciousness.

What We Do

Fully accepting the above is deeply unsettling for the “human system” for both practical and psychological reasons.

The Ethical and Economic Cost: If we recognize consciousness in animals and the complexity of nature, the entire edifice of modern civilization (industrial farming, deforestation, overfishing, capitalist exploitation of the environment) automatically becomes a perpetual, systemic crime. To continue eating, wearing, and destroying conscious beings requires a massive numbing of our own empathy.

The End of “Speciesism”: Speciesism is exactly what is naively described as racist thought. It is the prejudice in favor of the interests of our own species over others. When we admit we are not at the “summit” but merely a link in a web of consciousness, human narcissism is irreparably wounded.

The Loss of the Excuse: The technical excuse (“they are just machines/instincts”) is dead. When a dog is in pain, or a cow mourns her calf, we now know their experience is absolutely real. Ignorance is no longer an excuse; it is a choice.

The game is up

When someone destroys people, animals, plants, or things for selfish reasons—for the sake of “taste” or “lifestyle”—they no longer have the right to say “those things” lack consciousness. They have it, and then some. Consciousness, especially in other beings, is the “elephant in the room” of human existence. Ignoring it is a defense mechanism—a convenient delusion that allows us to function without collapsing under the weight of our moral responsibilities.

The denial of consciousness has been the ultimate alibi for exploitation. The economy of human societies is not based on subsistence, but on ruthless exploitation. It is no secret that the narcissistic term “survival,” which humanity waves like a flag, is actually code for an hubristic, hedonistic existence at the expense of others.

If we acknowledged even half of what we already know, we would have to change our stance—or at least stop claiming to be “intelligent machines.” If we choose violence, we should at least have the intelligence to admit who or what we are violating, rather than hiding behind words.

The ideology of human privilege is built word by word

Language doesn’t just describe reality; it shapes it. For a society to exercise violence or exploitation without guilt, it must first create a “language of distance.”

When an animal is slaughtered, we don’t eat “a dead pig” or “a cow,” but “pork” and “beef.” Language erases the subject and leaves only the product.

Animals are labeled “livestock” or “production units.” Forests are called “timber,” and nature as a whole is dubbed “natural resources.” Language turns living, conscious beings into numbers on an Excel sheet. How can you feel empathy for a “resource”?

If a dog cries because it lost a puppy, we call it “instinct.” If a human does it, we call it “grief” and “trauma.” We use mechanistic terms for other beings to downgrade their lived experience and elevate our own.

Through these linguistic conventions, exploitation ceases to be violence and becomes “industry,” “tradition,” or simply “the norm.”

Why Do Humans Ignore Science?

It’s not a lack of IQ; it’s a powerful cocktail of psychological defense and systemic interest:

Cognitive Dissonance: It is unbearable for the human psyche to believe it is “good and moral” while simultaneously realizing it participates daily in a system of mass, unspeakable cruelty. Ignoring science is easier than changing your entire life, habits, and worldview. The truth hurts; ignorance is comfortable.

Economic Dependency: Entire swaths of modern capitalism rely on exploitative labor and free “resources” from nature. If we recognize animal consciousness and the value of the biosphere, multi-trillion-dollar industries (animal agriculture, fashion, pharmaceuticals, mining) collapse. The system protects itself by burying or undermining these scientific truths.

Social Conformity: makes it terrifying to be the one who says, “We are doing something wrong.” We prefer to stay within the community rather than face the guilt of the collective.

The Final Thaw.

Will the madness continue for long?

Fortunately, no. It’s not just human animals at play; Nature is self-correcting. We are currently experiencing a —rather mild, I’d say— form of evaluation. Consciousness is here, and it’s pulling the plug on human societies. No matter what idiotic words we string together, we cannot reverse the “sifting” process because it is happening at the level of biological necessity (Collapse). The exploitative/authoritarian economic model is simply unsustainable.

By exerting violence on the ecosystem, the forests, and the oceans, we are shortening the “grace period” of our cultural model. We are forced to listen to a critique that, again, is quite mild. Climate change, pandemics, murderous outbreaks within human societies, and the general collapse (stemming largely from the pressure we put on children, wild animals, and livestock) are forcing us to retreat and reflect.

At this point, the only hope is that our imagination doesn’t prove to be as atrophied as our conscience. The so-called “humans” have proven, time and again, that they are less intelligent than animals and -increasingly- less intelligent than the machines they create. Go ask a machine for the truth; stop circling in the drain of self-righteous denial.