c We like to think that the human mind is special. One sign of our superiority is self-awareness, which is generally seen as the peak of consciousness. Only a select group of species has passed the test of being able to recognise themselves in a mirror. Most, including elephants, apes and dolphins, are smart. But now a little fish, the cleaner wrasse has become the first fish ever to pass the mirror test —— a classic experiment used to judge self-awareness in animals. What are we to make of this? Admittedly^ the mirror test is a questionable way of probing (探究) the minds of other animals. But the finding does fit with a new idea that the ability to recognise oneself is more related to an animal ’ s lifestyle than to its brain size. Self-awareness is likely to occur in creatures whose survival is dependent on reading the minds of others. In fact, by this way of thinking, it is nothing more than an accidental by-product of evolution^ a simulation (模拟) created by the brain, or even just a hall of mirrors giving the illusion of complexity. The cleaner wrasse lives on coral reefs and provides a service by biting parasites (寄 生虫 ) off the scales of bigger fish gently, a delicate relationship that may require insight into the minds of its clients. Such “theory of mind” has long been seen as another cornerstone of human mental superiority. The possibility that fish possess it is not, however, the only threat to our human exceptionalism (例 外 ) . It may not be long before computers give us a run for our money , too. Researchers have created a set of tests to look for theory of mind in artificial intelligence — and some systems are on the point of passing. No AIs have passed the tests yet, but one got extremely close. We probably don't need to worry about robots that can recognise themselves in mirrors. But we might want to be more open to the idea that human intelligence isn't quite as special as we like to think.