Witness the past! | Glimpse the future!
Does an elephant know it's an elephant?
Does it know what an elephant looks like?
Does it know that other elephants are elephants?
Does it equate the other elephants it sees to the concept of "an elephant" and also to its own self-image?
Can it understand a two-dimensional representation of a three dimensional object?
Can it make decisions with regard to what are and are not the essential anatomical features of an elephant?
Can it make the necessary intuitive leaps to render those features as linear figures?
Does it see in full colour?
Does it make imaginary flights in its mind involving the distortion of spatial relationships and relative scale of objects?
Does it want to express these imaginings to human beings and does it comprehend that human beings have minds capable of interpreting that expression?
And finally, does it derive pleasure from the process?
Because the answer to all those questions has to be "yes" before this can be considered as anything other than as charmless and disturbing a sight as the self-same animal performing in a conga line or teetering atop a giant ball, and I dread to think what methods were used in order to have the beast do it.

