July 15, 2025 - Reading time: 8 minutes

Introduction to the video story When the Mirror Looks Back.

Of course, you know you're self-aware. Who doesn't? You approach a mirror and find yourself staring back, grasping the profound strangeness of existence - A biological being reflects photons - light bounces off the glass, enters the eyes, and floods the brain with information, triggering an infinitely complex process that becomes the realization of this miracle. You can recognize the one standing before the mirror. It is you. And, even more - there are rare moments in life when you pause and ask: Who am I? What does all of this mean?

This is what we call self-awareness - the sense of self. For decades, scientists have used the mirror test on animals to explore self-recognition, which is linked to self-awareness and consciousness. The test typically involves placing a mark on an animal in a spot it can't see without a mirror. If the animal uses the mirror to investigate or remove the mark, it is taken as evidence of self-awareness.

Humans begin to pass the mirror test around 15 months of age. We have a large brain compared to our body size. There are almost 90 billion neurons in the human brain, and we often think this is the reason we become self-aware as we grow up.

Only a few adult animals pass the mirror test. A chimpanzee has 7 billion neurons in its brain, and it often can pass it. Other species, such as dolphins and elephants, can also pass the test, although not all individuals within the same species succeed.

Dogs and cats typically fail the mirror test. In fact, most mammals either ignore their reflection in the mirror or react as if facing a rival.

But in a surprising study, ants appeared to pass the mirror test. When researchers placed a tiny blue dot on their heads, many ants tried to remove it after seeing their reflection in the mirror. For context, an ant has just 250,000 neurons in the brain - minuscule compared to mammals or even human infants. For comparison, in 2023, ChatGPT had an impressive 175 billion artificial neurons.

Does the mirror test require a well-developed brain? Perhaps it isn't just size that matters. How can an ant, with its tiny brain, recognize itself? This raises a deeper question: Is brain size really the key to self-awareness?

Think about this: when you awaken suddenly from a dream, you might not recognize where you are. Your brain - with all its billions of neurons - can still fail to render reality, even when it's just your room. For a moment, you're lost in the transition from the realm of dreams to the world of molecules. That other realm - so fundamentally different - takes time to leave behind.

Likewise, animals that don't recognize themselves in a mirror still dream. They are conscious of the world around them. They observe and act to survive. But it may require a profound leap to realize the confinement inside a molecular vessel. This moment of surprise is so difficult because they have never been like this before. They came from a realm where the thrill of being existed irrespective of the body they were wearing - a place like a movie without being projected onto a screen made of material atoms.

The absence of self-recognition in the mirror may serve as a protective mechanism set by nature to soften the shock of realizing that everything about their existence - the very scenery they observe - now depends on this fragile biological vessel. Once animals grasp this idea, the play on the stage of their existence may change entirely.

It's like playing a video game without knowing which avatar is yours. You know how to react; you're aware of surroundings - but is it really necessary to discover who the actual player is? When you watch a movie, do you care about how you look? Deep down, you know - it's just you.

Many creatures' intelligence is replaced by instinct - a hard-wired map of actions triggered by sensory input. Instincts don't require intelligence to figure out what the body looks like or how to act. The behavior is automated, yet it doesn't compromise awareness. They don't need a slow body controlled by a large brain that does calculations. Intelligence is useful for adaptation, but that's not the game animals are built to play.

Animals need quick reactions - swift responses. The thrill isn't in slow thinking. They perceive the game they play, and that's the only awareness they care about.

Why would you care about your appearance when you're immersed in a game? Does a poker player need to worry about how he looks? Isn't the whole point to forget yourself entirely in the game?

So, what's different about ants? How can they-almost without a brain - pass the mirror test? We don't know for sure, but it's likely that all living organisms possess some level of self-awareness and a degree of consciousness. Some creatures, like ants, may need this ability to recognize their own appearance - because they play a different game, one far more social than you might imagine.

Ants have developed remarkably complex behaviors: they practice agriculture, engage in animal husbandry, navigate vast distances, adopt slavery, and maintain a strict caste system. An ant nest functions like a collective intelligence. For such a system to work, ants may need to recognize how they appear, since any deviation from the norm could separate them from their society - the nest. In a way, this is their version of the game.

Their script is simply different from that of other animals-or even other insects. Ants need self-recognition to be different kinds of players. This is their mission: to experience what it means to be part of a greater mind - a hive brain.

Humans have other missions-vastly different from those of animals. We are meant to embrace existence in the world of matter with full awareness of who we are: knowing our bodies, understanding the world around us-yet arriving here with blank minds.

And this, too, is for a reason-a special mission: to uncover the gentle line of a screenplay, and the one behind it. An endeavor to explore the way back to our true home and true origin, through rare revelations and momentary glimpses - like those moments when we look into a mirror and ask the timeless question: Who am I?

It is through these rare moments that we become aware.

But what about infants - those under 15 months - who fail to recognize themselves in a mirror? No, they do not lack self-awareness. They are still in the process of arriving, joining a spectacle profoundly different from the realm they came from. Their instincts are gradually being replaced by intelligence as they grow. This is a time of transition from a place where infinity meets eternity, where space folds into a single point and time dissolves. Infants are in the process of disconnecting from the world of pure information, resetting the scenery, and entering a new reality. The one that will eventually become human experience and story, which has to be returned back at the end of their earthly journey.

Written by S.V.Chekanov.

• YouTube video "When the Mirror Looks Back".
• Video style: Scientific Neo-Romanticism

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This is the full transcript of the YouTube video https://youtu.be/KRIdo65JOHc?si=0fmM5u0NJ5KTImrM created by the Designed World channel using the book "The Designed World of Information: Unveiling the Incredible Realm Beyond", by Dr. Sergei V. Chekanov, 466 pages, ISBN: 9798990642836; Hardcover 9798990642843, eBook ISBN 9798990642829; Book webpage: https://ermislearn.org/designed-world/