Analytics and mirrors: While the ability to recognize ones reflection in a mirror appears to be an excellent test of animal intelligence (and perhaps a hint about machine intelligence), with very few animals passing the test, humans have appreciated mirrors for millennia. Sacred objects in some cultures (e.g., ancient Japan), mirrors have been cherished for at least 6000 years, since at least the beginning of the Bronze Age.
Shown here is an ancient Etruscan Bronze mirror #handle from the 4th–3rd century BC on display in the Lourve museum collection near Paris in France. The piece is titled, appropriately enough, “The Judgement of Paris.”
It’s easy enough to see where humans got the idea for mirrors, as we’ll show in our next photo. This is also a great segue into our Halloween posts. (This was originally posted on our IG feed as part of a series of Halloween posts.) Other than smoke and mirrors, or a room full of mirrors, what do mirrors have to do with Halloween? What other animals pass this test of animal intelligence? Stay tuned….
Photo credit: Wikimedia/(C) Marie-Lan Nguyen/CC-BY-3