"<i>This form of deliberative reasoning is essentially ‘imagination’, it is a distinctly human ability</i>"<p>A completely unfounded supposition, as so often appears to be the case when some human monopoly is claimed. We didn't magically sprout whole new categories of ability during a measly few million years of evolution.<p>Anecdotally, I see crows getting out out the way of my car. Not confused and haphazardly as many birds do, but in calculated, deliberate, unhurried steps to somewhere <i>just</i> outside my trajectory - steps which clearly takes into account such elements as my speed and the state of other traffic on the road. Furthermore, when it's season for walnuts and the like, they'll calmly drop their haul on the asphalt, expecting my tyres to crush it for them. This - in my rural bit of Northern Europe - appears to be a recent import or invention; I never saw it done until two years ago.<p>And there's The Case of the Dog and the Peanut Butter Jars. My dog, my peanut butter jars, and they were empty, but not cleaned. Alone at home, she found them one day, and clearly had experimented on the first one, which had bitemarks aplenty on the lid. The rest she managed to unscrew without damage. Having licked the jars clean, apparently she got to thinking of the grumpy guy who woul eventually be coming home. I can think of no other explanation why I found the entire stash of licked-clean jars hidden - although not succesfully - under a rug.<p>Tell me again about imagination and its distinctly human nature.