A
couple weeks ago I wrote a preliminary blog post talking about a book
review on Other Minds: The Octopus, the
Sea, and the Deep Origins of Consciousness. I skimmed through the book and
wrote a rough draft last week. I was originally planning to write a simple
summary of the first couple of chapters but the goal is for readers to read the
actual book, not my interpretation. Therefore I’ll just use the first three
chapters to highlight why you should
read the first three chapters and hopefully more.
Meeting Across the Tree
of Life
The
first chapter of this book clarifies most importantly, that the author is
foremost a philosopher by trade, while there is a level of depth to the
explanations of evolution, neurology and the like it is not inaccessible. The
way the author, Peter Godfrey-Smith writes is informative, interesting, and
thought provoking. The chapter begins by sharing two fascinating accounts of curious
interactions between cephalopods (subgroup of mollusks including octopi,
squids, and cuttlefish) and then stating the usefulness of having other independently
developed models of intelligence to fully understand what it is to be
conscious.
A History of Animals
In
this chapter we are led through the evolution of intelligent life from the
simplest organism to a fork, that fork being the distant relative to both
octopi and ourselves. This chapter really sets up a good foundation for the
rest of the book. It details the conditions at each and every turn of the
changing eras where octopi developed and how it shaped their adaptations through
evolution.
Mischief and Craft
While
performing poorly in standardized conditioning tests, octopi continue to
exhibit strange and complex behavior, pointing clearly to signs of
intelligence. As shown in the first chapter, stories about octopi behaving
strangely accumulate and show us a more complete picture of the octopi
experience. Octopi have been shown to be fickle; they quickly adapt to new
environments and conditions, but may not want
to cooperate in lab tasks. Much of this chapter talks about multiple
instances where octopi take control of their environment to make it more convenient,
which includes squirting jets of water and everything they don’t like, and
escaping when no one is looking.
I
look forward to reading through Other Minds more thoroughly when I have time
later this week, but I hope I’ve managed to convince a few people to read the
book.
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