Thomas Suddendorf (2013)
"I do not think it is useful to resurrect Darwin’s
blanket statement that differences in mind between
humans and animals certainly are one of degree and not of
kind. The picture is more complicated. Even when we
find evidence for apparent differences in degree, this need
not rule out that differences in kind are also entailed: as
temperature gradually increases, the properties of H2O
change in kind as it transforms from a solid, to a liquid, to a
gas. By the same token, continuous increase in, say, working
memory capacity, may well lead to discontinuous
changes in what a mind can possibly conceive of. I
see no reason why mental time travel should not have
evolved gradually through Darwinian descent with modification. However, continuity over evolutionary time (e.g.,
from Australopithecines to Homo) should not be confused
with a need to postulate an absence of gaps in the distribution
of traits among extant species [9]. As transitional
forms go extinct, vast qualitative differences can certainly
emerge. On current evidence, it still appears that human
mental time travel is profoundly special. There are few
signs that animals act with the flexible foresight that is so
characteristic of humans."
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