The question of when we become aware of our own selves is surprisingly more complex than what I assumed. I obviously do not remember not knowing about myself, because I wouldn't have thought about it. The most surprising thing to self awareness experiments, is that only great apes and humans are self aware, and humans don't become self aware till around 18-24 months old. Watching the mirror experiment on video was fascinating because the results were very clear. When you are aware of your own being, the child recognized itself in the mirror, and were able to identify a sticker that was placed on their cheek, almost instantaneously. This makes me wonder what the transition is like to become aware of yourself. Is it a one second thing, where you make that realization or is it a gradual shift? Is being self-aware the characteristic that is the difference between intelligence species and non-intelligent species? Is this what makes our brains truly special compared to lesser species? This also leads me to think that it is why we do not remember any events in our early lives; perhaps it is because we did not process information with a sense of self. Could we have just been thinking, "What happened today" instead of "What did I do today"?
