2022 01Jan 30

(Paraphrased from somewhere else)

On this occasion, a lioness gained self-awareness.

"I am a being that thinks," she thought.

"Do the other lions think, too?"

She looked at the other lionesses and cubs, and at the lion of their pride.

"I cannot ask them. When they stare out at the horizon, are they thinking the same things I think when I stare? Are they thinking at all?"

Her thoughts wandered to the gazelles.

"The gazelles are not entirely unlike us, but we eat them to live. We can't eat grass, so we must eat them. They are all children of other gazelles, and we defend our own children fiercely. Is it wrong to eat the gazelles?"

She thought about this for some time.

"There is no other way we can live."

She stopped thinking for a moment.

"What has been the point of my self-awareness?"