[TinyTree]

I think that conscousness needs to be defined on a per discussion basis. That is, there are many forms of consciousness, and it would help in any particular discussion to nail down the type we are all discussing together.

For example, primary consciousness is the consciousness of the self. That is to say- each individual has their own primary consciousness, and they have no way to tell if this consciousness is shared with any other human or animal. They would presume it would be a similar experience, but have no way to really know.

The self referential consciousness might be the form of consciousness which allows one to represent self as an independent entity in a mind construct, and make decisions about self as a independent object. This is to say- it is a sophisticated form of self modeling. However, most mobile animals have some decent form of self modeling. The lower stage of self modelling is simply reactive (reactively taking actions in response to the environment) but the higher stage of self modelling is proactive (taking actions in anticipation of the environments impact on self). Clearly animals take many higher stage actions- such as a dog getting excited about a specific door opening which is the food closet. Here the dog may be saying to itself- the door is open, likely food will come out, and likely I will get some food. This is a higher form of self modelling because the dog is anticipating the relationship of the environment (the food) to self (it will get to eat some)

Now if you "advance those ideas" to the notion of modelling self as a cognitive agent, within self (as a simplified version of course) then this could be considered the self referential consciousness. Not only aware of self, but aware of self as a cognitive agent, including emotions, and reactions.

Interestingly, this is very close to telling a story. If you tell a story, you incorporate other agents into a narrative. If you incorporate self into this narrative, you have reached the point of modelling self as a cognitive agent. Therefore, according to this metric, the ability to tell a story including oneself is a requisite to being a conscious entity with self referential consciousness.

Can animals tell stories? Some can- a bee can "tell a story" about how to arrive at a specific patch of clover. However this story from what we understand, is more of a set of directions, not a narrative of self, especially not a future narrative of self anticipating self reaction.

Do other animals tell stories? I can not think of any examples off the top of my head. I am not trying to exclude animals from consciousness, I am trying to comprehend what consciousness is, and why we typically think animals are not conscious.