Ants pass the mirror test?

Take this with a very big grain of salt; and even if it is true, it does not necessarily mean ants are self-aware -- as Peter Watts pointed out, "it’s easy to envision an algorithm that recognizes the self without being aware of the self".

Still, pretty amazing if true:

http://ift.tt/1kfBpBD

Quote:

Start with the Plexiglas. Put Ant A on one side, Ant B on the other. Ant A shows no reaction to its buddy at all. So far so good. Stick it in front of a mirror. Now it pays attention. Goes up to the glass, taps its reflection, shows interest it never showed with the real ant on the other side of the plexi. Interesting. Maybe it’s reacting to something in the mirror, some chemical in the silver backing perhaps. So put a dot of blue paint on its head and put it in front of the mirror again. This time it checks out its reflection and starts grooming its head, as if to get rid of that weird-ass dot that just appeared there. It never tries to groom its reflection, which is where it actually saw the paint. This is starting to get creepy.

via International Skeptics Forum http://ift.tt/2anTWg2