Thinking?

One of the things that is simply true is no one knows how long they have on this earth.  That is true from the moment you are born until the day you die.  Of course as you get older you become more aware of your mortality.

Most of us believe that death is not the end, that there is an afterlife.  That may be no more than human hubris since we have the ability to imagine we continue on.  I have no way of knowing and I doubt anyone else has about whether this is something that exists in other animals.

Whether you believe in evolution or something else, we share our origin with the animals.  We can see the evidence in our DNA or in religious books.  Animals share many of our attributes such as procreation, fight or flight, sleep, ability to identify food and the ability to remember there mates, in many cases.  

We consider these attribute instincts in both them and us although we think some of them involve higher thought in our case.  The question is what sort of thought process do animals have? Years ago I was told that prey animals have short memories since they would never venture out.  Of course they venture out to satisfy strong urges to find food or mates so the risk is consider less than they reward/  Or is this even a part of the process?

Humans constantly measure risk versus reward.  It is something done at the highest levels of Business and Government and being good at it often leads to success.  Of course the same was true when we lived in caves although we probably didn't use complex equations.  Neither does the rabbit.