Hans wrote:

<And what if "self-awareness and free will" is just an imagination...>

And Don replied:

<All of the important processes of life are governed by an intelligence far
exceeding the abilities of our conscious mind.>

This is a very interesting view, that resembles that of the 17th century
philosopher Baruch Spinoza:

Interesting point, in an other part of his main book (Ethics), after having
defined why the concept of "free will" is erroneous, he writes about the
relationship between humans and animals and states:

(Pardon me, I may translate poorly here since I can't find the right page
back and cite by memory)
"animals and humans have the same rights one unto the other: a bear has as
much right to kill you when you meet it alone in a forest as you have to
kill  a cow to eat it. It just happens that humans have managed to become
the strongest of all species."

Julien

(very pleased and impressed by the high level of information and reflection
of this list, and especially by these last two weeks posts)