A look at self awareness ?? (Score 1)

What is it to be self aware ? I think most living beings are "self aware" only when confronted by some stimulus, pleasant or unpleasant.We are aware that we are aware when we need to be aware. I mean just because a robot can distinguish a mirror image from real might not make it even close to it being self aware....heard that certain monkeys took a long time to realise they were seeing their own image and eventually panicked ??..monkeys may be reasonably self aware...can we use the stimulus idea here?...might be just that we have no choice other than to be self aware..are bacteria self aware?? i think rats sure are only if u bother to bother them...how does a collection of atoms , making it a life form get self aware and at what level of that collection can we be reasonably sure that the life form is self aware...May be self awareness is a concept which is of a greater dimension, where individual life forms are mere instances of that collective awareness...should saddam hussein have been more self aware in dealing with the west..i guess his awareness is reduced to that of what his biological faculties perceive...