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Other Minds: The Octopus, the Sea, and the Deep Origins of Consciousness

Peter Godfrey-Smith

3.86 · Rating details · 9,284 ratings · 1,156 reviews

Although mammals and birds are widely regarded as the smartest creatures on earth, it has lately become clear that a very distant branch of the tree of life has also sprouted higher intelligence: the cephalopods, consisting of the squid, the cuttlefish, and above all the octopus. In captivity, octopuses have been known to identify individual human keepers, raid neighboring tanks for food, turn off lightbulbs by spouting jets of water, plug drains, and make daring escapes. How is it that a creature with such gifts evolved through an evolutionary lineage so radically distant from our own? What does it mean that evolution built minds not once but at least twice? The octopus is the closest we will come to meeting an intelligent alien. What can we learn from the encounter?

In Other Minds, Peter Godfrey-Smith, a distinguished philosopher of science and a skilled scuba diver, tells a bold new story of how subjective experience crept into being—how nature became aware of itself. As Godfrey-Smith stresses, it is a story that largely occurs in the ocean, where animals first appeared. Tracking the mind’s fitful development, Godfrey-Smith shows how unruly clumps of seaborne cells began living together and became capable of sensing, acting, and signaling. As these primitive organisms became more entangled with others, they grew more complicated. The first nervous systems evolved, probably in ancient relatives of jellyfish; later on, the cephalopods, which began as inconspicuous mollusks, abandoned their shells and rose above the ocean floor, searching for prey and acquiring the greater intelligence needed to do so. Taking an independent route, mammals and birds later began their own evolutionary journeys.

But what kind of intelligence do cephalopods possess? Drawing on the latest scientific research and his own scuba-diving adventures, Godfrey-Smith probes the many mysteries that surround the lineage. How did the octopus, a solitary creature with little social life, become so smart? What is it like to have eight tentacles that are so packed with neurons that they virtually “think for themselves”? What happens when some octopuses abandon their hermit-like ways and congregate, as they do in a unique location off the coast of Australia?

By tracing the question of inner life back to its roots and comparing human beings with our most remarkable animal relatives, Godfrey-Smith casts crucial new light on the octopus mind—and on our own.

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Kindle Edition, 271 pages

Published December 6th 2016 by Farrar, Straus and Giroux

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Jan 25, 2017 Julie rated it it was ok · review of another edition

Shelves: non-fiction, science

I wanted to like this book -- I really did -- but unfortunately it just didn't do much for me.

First of all, my background and the book's. I studied bio with an emphasis on evolution. This book is about the evolution of octopus brains: a system only distantly linked to our own. An octopus is really the closest thing we have to a truly alien intelligence whereas mammals and birds have similar systems in play. We were a match made in heaven. I was thrilled for this book and even tried to get a ...more

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Jan 12, 2019 Petra-X rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: 10-star-books, philosophy-religion, medicine-science, 2019-100-reviews, reviewed, animals-ethology, 2019-read

This book is explanation of our development, the evolution, from single-celled beings to the complex creatures of today. The author says that the chemistry of life is aquatic. That's why we are made of such a large volume of water with a delicate salt-balance ourselves. I knew this, but had never thought of it quite as "the chemistry of life is sea-based".

The author is in love with octopuses and cuttlefish and describes them from observation, from laboratory anecdotes and from a scientific point This book is explanation of our development, the evolution, from single-celled beings to the complex creatures of today. The author says that the chemistry of life is aquatic. That's why we are made of such a large volume of water with a delicate salt-balance ourselves. I knew this, but had never thought of it quite as "the chemistry of life is sea-based".

The author is in love with octopuses and cuttlefish and describes them from observation, from laboratory anecdotes and from a scientific point of view. The most amazing thing, which I have witnessed myself but did not understand until I read this book, is that squid can be very friendly to people. Their skin, which is like a computer monitor with a million pixels that can light up in a millisecond in many colours and patterns, can also see. It is not understood how. It is also thought that molluscs are colourblind which wouldn't make any sense. So I prefer to interpret that, as does the author, the mechanism for perceiving colour in molluscs has not yet been discovered.

Years ago, I was snorkelling around a very small reef and I saw a little squid, it stayed still in the water and was rapidly changing colour. So I stopped to look at it. Then it was joined by another, then another until there were about 7 of them of varying sizes from about the size of your hand up to forearm sized all in a row and all rapidly cycling colours and patterns, waves and clouds and spots and electric stripes. I called out to my bf to come and see but come slowly not to scare them. I didn't think they would stay.

He swam over and by then there were about 11 squids and it was apparent to both of us that they were staring at me. They were as curious and interested in me as I was in them and they didn't go away for quite a few minutes. They were no more shy than I was and as I had called my ex, so they had 'called' each other to come and see me.

Until I read this book I hadn't known that squid could be very friendly to people and were curious and interested in them, and I had indeed been right, they were checking me out in exactly the same as I was them.

And therein lies the nugget at the heart of the book. The development of consciousness. Which we know nothing much about, in ourselves included. We do not know how we process thoughts. We know that we have a short term memory (much as a computer) for present tasks, that we have interior dialogues both conscious and unconscious and for some the only way to still the inner voices is by meditation. We know that all of this is evolutionary, consciousness did not start with us, but what is it, and how do we pin it down?

Wonderful book, just for the explanation of development from single-celled creatures to ourselves, and for showing how evolution, how the mutation of cells is an everyday process, nothing special, just some mutations are useful and stick, and others either cause harm or just go nowhere.

The writing is a bonus. It's scientific, tells stories, draws from the vocabulary of artists and above all else communicates the great enthusiasm the author has for his subject to the reader.

10 stars. The book ended too soon.

...more

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Sep 09, 2018 carol. rated it it was ok · review of another edition

Shelves: non-fiction, skimmed, science, animals-and-people

Octopodes, or "the floppy floppy spider of the sea," (source: ZeFrank) are pretty freaking amazing. Godfrey-Smith agrees, which is how this book came about. As he notes on page 9, "If we can make contact with cephalopods as sentient beings, it is not because of shared history...but because evolution built minds twice over. This is probably the closest we will come to meeting an intelligent alien."

Unfortunately, he tried to marry it with one of his professional passions, the philosophy of Octopodes, or "the floppy floppy spider of the sea," (source: ZeFrank) are pretty freaking amazing. Godfrey-Smith agrees, which is how this book came about. As he notes on page 9, "If we can make contact with cephalopods as sentient beings, it is not because of shared history...but because evolution built minds twice over. This is probably the closest we will come to meeting an intelligent alien."

Unfortunately, he tried to marry it with one of his professional passions, the philosophy of consciousness, and that's where this falls quite short. The beginning chapters have a quick explanation of the evolutionary tree, and then start tracing the origin of life and neurons through a brief look at the fossil record. This is supposed to impress upon us how different we are from octopodes, but if you didn't already know that, I don't know how you would have selected this book. So that was weird to me. Each chapter has a teaser opener of a real-life octopus situation, then goes into theory.

Julie has a very solid, thorough analysis on what went wrong, and why, and I strongly suggest it if you are wondering whether or not this is for you. I am occasionally in the mood for philosophy, but grow quickly tired of discussions of perception of pain, consciousness, and possible perception of self. To me, consciousness and pain quickly boils down to experience: I see something witness and try to escape potential pain/pain; therefore it experiences it enough that it deserves consideration, does it not? Does it actually matter if it conceives of itself as an individual? Whatever. That isn't the point: the point is that these conversations quickly grow tiresome to me because it seems the ultimate in superiority complexes, all the more ironic coming from a race that can't manage to not to destroy its own environment. And now I'm off track again. Anyways, here's what's interesting:

-octopodes can recognize people. They also tend to squirt water at things they don't like. There's numerous anecdotes of them specifically targeting a person they don't like with a jet of water, or all new visitors to the lab.

-the Ediacaran period had peaceful creatures that were basically like bathmats that crawled around munching and seemed to not have sophisticated sense organs or protective armament. I have no idea what this has to do with octopodes, but it's a super fun visual image. I picture a herd of bathmats grazing on my lawn.

-cuttlefish are also cool, and may actually be color-blind, although they have the astonishing ability to blend with their environment.

-there's a secret octopus garden on the east coast of Australia. Or in a Beatle's song. Which is awesome.

There's some neat colorplate photos in here, as well as some black-and-white drawings and illustrations in an attempt to help the reader with visuals (ie., evolutionary tree, the fossil record). The end chapter where he talks about studies at Octopolis are genuinely interesting, and I would have read much more about what's coming out of there. Actually, now that I'm listening to it again, watching ZeFrank is a quicker, and more fun, and references many of the same octopus facts that were in this book. ...more

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Aug 09, 2017 Darwin8u rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: 2017

"When you dive into the sea, you are diving into the origin of us all."
- Peter Godfrey-Smith, Other Minds

description

"Mischief and craft are plainly seen to be characteristics of this creature."
- Claudius Aelianus, 3rd Century A.D., writing about the octopus

It is always fascinating reading a biology book that seems to resemble a physics book, or an economics book that borrows heavily from psychology. Cross-pollination and flexibility to squeeze into other academic boxes always pleases me. So, when I ...more

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Jun 22, 2018 Warwick rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: evolution, philosophy, wildlife

Despite what might be gleaned from your Star Treks and Dr Whos, the evolution of intelligent life is – as far as I can get my head round it – infinitesimally rare and unlikely. The emergence of cells, the development of eukaryotes, the first multicellular organisms, the start of sexual reproduction, and finally some kind of freak evolutionary drive towards increased intelligence – all these things happened once only, and didn't have to. It's presumably happened somewhere else in the universe Despite what might be gleaned from your Star Treks and Dr Whos, the evolution of intelligent life is – as far as I can get my head round it – infinitesimally rare and unlikely. The emergence of cells, the development of eukaryotes, the first multicellular organisms, the start of sexual reproduction, and finally some kind of freak evolutionary drive towards increased intelligence – all these things happened once only, and didn't have to. It's presumably happened somewhere else in the universe (which is a sizeable place), but I wouldn't be surprised to learn that we're the only example in the 200 billion solar systems of this galaxy.

People interested in such things have spent a lot of time trying to put concrete numbers to the odds of these things happening. That last step – the development of intelligence – seems among the most unlikely, but one of the implications of this utterly fascinating book is that perhaps it isn't so unique after all. Enter – by jet propulsion – the octopus.

Invertebrates are not generally known for their brainpower. But octopuses (and, to a degree, all cephalopods) are an exception. In terms of sheer neurons, they are well up there with many of the mammals – they have more neural connections than cats, for example. As Godfrey-Smith puts it, they are ‘an island of mental complexity in the sea of invertebrate animals’.

That does not mean that the way they think is comparable to us, though, or to your pet Persian. Although a few of an octopus's neurons are gathered into a walnut-sized ‘CPU’ of sorts, most of them are dispersed throughout their body: each of their eight arms can, in a very real sense, ‘think’ and act independently.

Godfrey-Smith, though often wearing a marine biologist hat, is a philosopher by training, and he spends a lot of time here addressing the question of what it might feel like to be an octopus, without a centralised ‘self’ in the way that we understand it. I thought I would find these sections irritatingly speculative (which is my reaction to most philosophers, if I'm honest), but in fact they were so grounded in scientific data, and just so interesting, that I was more than happy to go along for the ride.

Ultimately, though, the differences are perhaps less significant than the similarities. The most recent common ancestor of humans and octopuses lived upwards of five hundred million years ago, and was probably some kind of very simple worm-like thing without any neural network to speak of. That means that natural selection has, completely independently, developed complex ‘intelligence’ of some kind twice.

‘Cephalopods and smart vertebrates are independent experiments in the evolution of the mind,’ Godfrey-Smith summarises. The implications are genuinely awe-inspiring. And looking at an octopus is, in all likelihood, as close to meeting an alien intelligence as we'll ever get. ...more

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Nov 02, 2019 Bradley rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: 2019-shelf, psychology, science

Strangely enough, this book -- which could have turned into a free-for-all metaphysics/philosophy speculation-fest -- actually turned out to be a relatively careful, thoughtful science book that poses, but does not attempt to prove, that octopods may be the real deal.

Intelligence does not need a spine. Hell, to me, this should be rather obvious.

I appreciate how the old scientific prejudice and just plain annoyance with the creatures might have skewed clear thinking about squids. I also ...more

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Dec 28, 2016 Jason Furman rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: philosophy, nonfiction, biology, science

One of the best books I read this year and not one I had been planning to read. I skimmed a few reviews, which were interesting but did not leave me thinking that I needed to read the full book. But then I started a sample on a whim and was swept away by the carefully observed descriptions of octopuses (and to a lesser degree cuttlefish) and the use of that as a springboard to discuss evolutionary biology and the philosophy of the mind.

Octopuses are a type of mollusk and, like all invertebrates, One of the best books I read this year and not one I had been planning to read. I skimmed a few reviews, which were interesting but did not leave me thinking that I needed to read the full book. But then I started a sample on a whim and was swept away by the carefully observed descriptions of octopuses (and to a lesser degree cuttlefish) and the use of that as a springboard to discuss evolutionary biology and the philosophy of the mind.

Octopuses are a type of mollusk and, like all invertebrates, branched off from the stream of animals that led to humans enormously long ago--and well before the evolution of central nervous systems, eyes, or much else of any sophistication. But now octopuses have large collections of neurons, rivaling mammals, but they are evolved largely independently of ours. And they have important differences, for example most of their neurons are distributed in their arms rather than collected together in their brain. This leads Peter Godfrey-Smith to speculate about what this says about intelligence and whether we should think of body parts as having their own autonomous intelligences (in the form of reflexes or even higher order thought in octopuses). Some of the interesting speculations are about how humans benefited from the feedback loop between our sensing of our own actions (e.g., we can hear ourselves talk) while octopuses and cuttlefish can make impressive color displays but are themselves colorblind so they do not see their own displays nor do they use them to communicate with others.

Towards the end the book turns poignant as Godfrey-Smith relates how this highly curious and interactive animal, the closest thing to an alien we have on earth, only lives for about two years--much less than anything else its size and intellectual sophistication. This leads into both the evolutionary biology of aging and its link to reproduction and ultimately an homage to the ocean and conservation that is less original than much of the book but powerful for how much he learned about the human mind from swimming on the bottom of the ocean. ...more

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Jun 16, 2018 Trish rated it it was ok · review of another edition

Shelves: nonfiction, skimmed, australia, science, ocean

Gosh, I wasn't crazy about this. Godfrey-Smith is an Australian, Sydney native, teaching at City University in New York. He began studying octopus in 2008 by following them around in scuba gear. He is a philosopher, not a scientist. I did not grasp that when we began. There were some very un-scientific notions presented that struck me as weird

"[Cephalopods and baboons] are both partial cases, unfinished, in a sense, though one should not think of evolution as goal-directed."

I should think not. ...more

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Dec 06, 2016 Renata rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: great-reads, non-fiction, science-nature

Other Minds: The Octopus, the Sea, And the Deep Origins of Consciousness

Other Minds is one of the most remarkable books I have read - ever!
There is much I loved about this book, much that fascinated, intrigued, puzzled, flummoxed, and thoroughly delighted me in this wonderful treasure, but none of that would have happened without the extraordinary writing by Peter Godfrey Smith.
So I may have been drawn into the book by the title and my fascination for the octopus, but the other half of the Other Minds: The Octopus, the Sea, And the Deep Origins of Consciousness

Other Minds is one of the most remarkable books I have read - ever!
There is much I loved about this book, much that fascinated, intrigued, puzzled, flummoxed, and thoroughly delighted me in this wonderful treasure, but none of that would have happened without the extraordinary writing by Peter Godfrey Smith.
So I may have been drawn into the book by the title and my fascination for the octopus, but the other half of the title was equally compelling: the deep origins of consciousness. Where does our consciousness come from? How do we distinguish between mind and action? And, of course, how do our animal cousins experience it? I think we’ve all observed what we feel is consciousness in our mammal friends and certain birds – but in the lizards in my yard? In the fish (etc.) in sea? And, really, who hasn’t wished they could deeply communicate with a beloved pet or some nearby critter?
Smith regales us with delightful, startling, endearing stories of the cephalopods of the sea, primarily the octopus and the cuttle-fish in the waters around Australia. He is a marvelous story teller, a passionate diver, and in those chapters you are hardly aware of reading NF because his narrative voice is so warm, curious, observant, and illuminating. Heck, I didn’t even know what a cuttle-fish was a few years ago and now I’m thinking they are the cutest, most talented little critters to grace the sea (OK – after dolphins). Godrey-Smith describes his experiences swimming with cuttlefish, especially the giant ones. He writes:
“ A cuttlefish looks like a giant octopus attached to a hovercraft. It has a back shaped a bit like a turtle shell, a prominent head, and eight arms coming straight out of the head…This animal is three feet long with a skin that can appear just about any color at all and can change in seconds, sometimes much faster than a second. In the case of large cuttlefish, the entire body is a screen on which patterns are played. Not just a series snapshots, but moving shapes, like stripes and clouds. These seem to be immensely expressive animals, animals with a lot to say. IF SO, WHAT IS BEING SAID AND TO WHOM? And WHY? HOW DOES IT HELP THEIR SURVIVAL?
Godfrey-Smith peppers the book (perhaps rather salts )generously with frequent questions, both his own and those of fellow scientists, to engage his readers in continual reflection on the topics being explored. I loved this feature of his writing, it kept my mind actively engaged and gave me the feeling of being a part of this scientific process of open inquiry. The author moves back and forth with a conversational voice that completely pulls the reader into the examination of his philosophical quest. I felt like I was enrolled in a graduate seminar, small and intimate, with a relaxed and warmly conversant professor who knew it really is all about the voyage.
And he charmed me with his descriptions of diving experiences like the octopus leading him by the hand in Octopolis, that surprising community of octopuses where we can vicariously delight in their occasional power struggles of who is king of the mountain – now imagine that scenario with two eight-armed creatures! How can you not love the creative spirit of this philosopher scientist who names the cuttle-fish after artists like Matisse and Kandinsky based upon their colorful displays:

The author includes both colored photos of the octopus and cuttlefish as well as simplified diagrams to help readers with less of a science background (readers like me) grasp some of his more complex explanations. I found these to be very helpful and was able to bounce back and forth between the written words and the diagrams to build a deeper understanding of new knowledge. He is a patient and able guide and I found myself laughing often at his humorous asides after a particularly complex explanation. For example, one of my favorite chapters was A History of Animals. Godfrey-Smith presents a variety of theories on how scientists formed two views of the evolution of the nervous system:
"Possibilities abound. One nervous system develops on top, and tracks light, but not as a guide to action. Instead it uses light to control bodily rhythms and regulate hormones. Another nervous system evolves to control movement, initially just the movement of the mouth. And at some stage, the two systems begin to move within the body, coming into new relationships with each other.
What an amazing image: in a long evolutionary process, a motion controlling brain marches up through your head to meet there some light sensitive organs, which become eyes."

Now really, that just made me want to jump up and cheer! If you have a high tolerance for questions and uncertainty and are willing to go along on a ride of reflecting on possibilities, this book is for you.
Godfrey-Smith ends this book quietly and gently reminding us that the effects of human actions from the past two hundred years are far more hazardous and complex than even the most knowledgeable of experts has imagined them to be. Just this week I read an article on the high levels of toxins that have drifted down into the deepest areas of the Marianas Trench. We have too long held the belief that the rescources of the sea are endless, that the seas are so vast they can withstand all that we put into them; but we are learning that is not so.
“The mind evolved in the sea. Water made it possible. All the early stages took place in the water: the origin of life, the birth of animals, the evolution of nervous systems and brains, and the appearance of the complex bodies that make brains worth having.diversity and our alien cousins – the octopus and cuttle-fish.
I highly recommend this engaging and thought-provoking book to all who are curious about the spectacular variety of life in our world and how we are all connected by such an insignificant percentage of DNA. Splendid!

...more

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Jul 21, 2018 Ian rated it liked it

Shelves: science

I decided to give this a go after seeing a glowing recommendation for it in an online article. I suppose those sorts of reviews are a double-edged sword. They get you to read the book, but on the other hand the reader can start with overly high expectations, which is what happened to me in this case.

The author’s starting premise is an intriguing one. The complex brains of humans and other mammals are all “variations on a theme” and arise out of differences between quite closely related species. ...more

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Dec 20, 2016 Emma Sea rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: i-own-it, sciencey-science, paperback

Thoroughly enjoyable, fantastic writing, a perfect blend of science and thoughtful, personal responses with a philosophical bent. Highly recommended

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May 01, 2018 jeroen rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Loved this book. I guess the best part for me was the lively enthusiasm, this guy really lives his stories. The attention to detail, the personal approach towards scientific stories -hard to do and well done- and the never ending exhilarating, addictive examples. The only reason it does not get five stars is the ‘other minds’ subject. There is a promise in the beginning that we will dive into another world of consciousness and intelligence with the octopi. The book -for me- does not really ...more

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Dec 05, 2017 Annie rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: science

10/10 RECOMMEND.

The premise:
Basically, a philosopher tries to parse out how and why cephalopods (octopus, squid, cuttlefish) developed intelligent minds when they split from all other animals we consider to have intelligent minds (e.g. vertebrates like cats, dogs, parrots, monkeys, humans, etc.) so very, very long ago. These are parallel evolutions; our minds and octopoid (it's a word) minds developed completely independent of each other. How? Why? And what does this say about what a “mind” 10/10 RECOMMEND.

The premise:
Basically, a philosopher tries to parse out how and why cephalopods (octopus, squid, cuttlefish) developed intelligent minds when they split from all other animals we consider to have intelligent minds (e.g. vertebrates like cats, dogs, parrots, monkeys, humans, etc.) so very, very long ago. These are parallel evolutions; our minds and octopoid (it's a word) minds developed completely independent of each other. How? Why? And what does this say about what a “mind” is? Basically, octopi (yes, I know "octopodes" and "octopuses" are preferred, but fuck off, look how cute "octopi" is) are the closest thing we have to alien intelligence.

The kind of intelligence octopi have seems, to me, to be similar to the intelligence humans have: adaptivity. For instance, octopi have been observed stealing halved coconut shells- presumably cut in half and discarded by humans. They put one half of the coconut nested inside the other half, and carry this around while moving around the ocean floor. Then when they want to- to catch prey, or for shelter- they put the coconut shells together and go inside. The ability to disassemble, carry around, and reassemble a compound shelter like that? Is there any comparable behavior in any animals other than primates?

Like us, octopi play with things that are clearly not edible and have no real use, just out of curiosity. They have long and short term memory. Odds are good they have REM sleep (the sleep in which we, and other mammals, dream), since their cousins cuttlefish appear to have REM sleep (it’s still not demonstrated that octopi do though). But unlike us, they have three hearts and bluish-green blood (we use iron to carry oxygen; they use copper!), no bones or shells.

I think my favourite takeaway from this book is the lasting impression you get that, although we may think of ourselves as a clearly dilineated being- one whole individual cohesive self- it is more accurate to think of ourselves as a variety of cells clumped together that coordinate their behavior, through the intake and outtake of chemicals, to perpetuate their own survival. Like the first multicellular life on earth- individual cells that got stuck together and had to learn to use their conglomeration to survive, eventually by some cells doing one biological task and other tasks assigned other tasks.

My favourite octopus anecdote: lab octopi are often fed things like frozen squid, when they much prefer crab. One day, a scientist was distributing frozen squid to a row of octopi tanks one by one. When she got to the end, she turned around and went back the way she came. The octopus in the first tank had not eaten its squid, and was holding it in a clear, obvious way, and appeared to be waiting for her. As the scientist stood there, the octopus made its way across the tank to the outflow pipe, watching the scientist the whole way. Then, still watching her, it dumped the squid down the drain. ...more

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Jun 18, 2019 Lindsay rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: science

I came to this via the afterword of the brilliant SF book Children of Ruin which deals with humans and their allies coming across a space-faring(!) civilization of uplifted octopuses. That book leans heavily on this one; enough so that I recommend that to readers of this and vice versa.

I must admit that I came to this with some trepidation given that it's ostensibly about consciousness and by a philosopher. Neither of those things creates an expectation of anything concrete or evidence-based. So ...more

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Jun 16, 2017 Richard Newton rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: science-and-popular-science, thinking-about-life, philosophy, natural-history

An interesting insight into the evolution of other forms of intelligent life which have developed completely independently of our own.

One of those intelligent books which deftly flows between science and philosophy. Godfrey-Smith is a good writer who handles complex ideas with ease. He has researched well and quotes liberally from many scientific and philosophical sources - adding his own compelling interpretations.

But 3 stars rather than 4. I know I am idiosyncratic and inconsistent in my ...more

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Dec 15, 2016 Michael rated it really liked it · review of another edition

I found this book after reading a NY Times article by the author, "Octopuses and the Puzzle of Aging". The article was fascinating, and at the bottom was a note mentioning it was adapted from this forthcoming book.

I don't read as much non-fiction as I should (read: none at all) but I ordered it anyway and I'm glad I did! Godfrey-Smith takes you from the beginning of life on Earth to the present, stopping along the way to point out important developments not just in octopus consciousness, but in ...more

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Apr 05, 2018 Leo Walsh rated it really liked it · review of another edition

"Other Minds" by Peter Godfrey-Smith is an amazing, thought-provoking book that bridges science and philosophy, notably the question: 'What is consciousness? And how do you know when something is sentient?'

Godfrey-Smith addresses this thorny problem by studying the 'other time' intelligence evolved on earth, notably the cephalopods. These animals, which include octopuses and cuddle fish, are intelligent, especially the octopuses. They solve complex cognitive tasks as readily as magpies and "Other Minds" by Peter Godfrey-Smith is an amazing, thought-provoking book that bridges science and philosophy, notably the question: 'What is consciousness? And how do you know when something is sentient?'

Godfrey-Smith addresses this thorny problem by studying the 'other time' intelligence evolved on earth, notably the cephalopods. These animals, which include octopuses and cuddle fish, are intelligent, especially the octopuses. They solve complex cognitive tasks as readily as magpies and monkeys. They show adaptiveness, inventiveness and tool use. Their skins contain glands that allow them to change colors in a variety of patterns, often mimicking their surroundings to a discerning degree. And yet, for all their smarts, they seem alien to us. Because the cephalopods have a decentralized nervous system.

But he does not leave us there. instead, he goes on to illustrate how we humans also have decentralized nervous systems. Though we tell ourselves inner 'stories' that make it seem like there's a "me" in control, much cognitive science research shows otherwise.

For instance, I'll ask you to play along. Now sit still, but raise your hand whenever you want. Humans experience this as a their "me" deciding, after some random interval, to raise their hands. And yet MRI scans of brains show that the hand is raised BEFORE the conscious deciding parts of the brain come into action.

So perhaps, octopuses aren't as alien as we think. Which leads to the flipped-around observation: the more we study human cognition, the more alien it appears.

The biggest drawback to this book for me was that it meandered in places. Some of the information presented seemed to lack focus and neither strengthened the author's arguments nor rebutted contrary theories. Regardless, though, "Other Minds" is a great science read. Especially for people using science to explore realms 'beyond science' where scientific research can illuminate issues but can never provide answers. Like, 'is this moral,' or 'is a doc sentient?'

Four stars. ...more

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May 25, 2018 Vivian rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Recommended to Vivian by: Emma Sea

Shelves: 2018-odyssey, gift, theory

Philosophy meets evolutionary biology and very very interesting.

For those out there fascinated by the recent 'octopuses are aliens' (paraphased) journal paper, read this, please.

Godfrey-Smith explores how sensory and reacting developed differently in cephalopods versus vertebrates. Postulating how the highly centralized nervous system of vertebrates varies from the more dispersed one in octopuses, squid, and cuttlefish. Once I got into the frame of mind to read this, it went very quickly. This ...more

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Feb 20, 2017 Brian rated it liked it

Shelves: on-kindle, grbpp

(3.5) some good stuff about octopus and cuttlefish (wee!) behavior but a lot of fluff / repetition as well.

He tries to tackle cephalopod behavior, evolutionary biology and the evolution of consciousness in mammals, birds and cephalopods. The cephalopod behavior is by far the most interesting. There are some cool anecdotes in here, some from his own experience and some from others. If you read the eBook, don't miss the color photos near the end of the book! (And I don't recommend reading on ...more

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Oct 23, 2018 Clare rated it really liked it · review of another edition

OVERALL AVERAGE RATING: 3.8

Content: 4/5
So last year I read The Lightkeepers by Abby Geni (excellent book by the way), and one of the things that stuck with me from that book was the octopus that one of the characters kept as a pet. Geni had described it as such an enigmatic creature that I immediately wanted to read more about them. With that said, this book was extremely detailed and informative, covering a span of topics from the evolutionary history of cephalopods to current research that’s ...more

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Jan 28, 2018 Richard Derus rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: returned, borrowed

Rating: 3.5* of five

A deeply (!) enjoyable look at cephalopod minds, not brains but minds, in parallel to our own mammalian ones. I was absolutely enthralled by the author's discoveries made at a site he calls "Octopolis," a community of octopuses on the seafloor near Sydney, Australia.

One of the most interesting facets of the book to me was its explanation, in terms of existing evolutionary thought, of how and why cephalopods, animals that live a single mating cycle on average, developed the ...more

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Sep 29, 2018 Betsy rated it really liked it

Shelves: science-math, non-humans, nonfiction

[29 September 2018]
This fascinating short book is about octopuses, the development of consciousness in both humans and other animals, why living creatures die, and other interesting topics. A strange mix, you think? Yes, but very well done.

This is not a scientific work. The author is not a scientist, but a philosopher. However, he might also be called a naturalist, one who observes nature closely and reports on it. And he does it well. His writing style is relaxed, almost conversational, and ...more

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Apr 17, 2018 Aloke rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: science, non-fiction, e-owned

"I for one welcome our new octopus overlords!" is probably not a phrase you'll hear anytime soon. But this book does make a strong case that the octopus and the cuttlefish (Godfrey-Smith definitely has a crush on cuttlefish) are quite intelligent. And because we parted ways evolutionarily quite a long time back, he says, we can study them to understand our own path to consciousness. It sounds like the science is far from settled but he sketches out a few different theories that seem plausible ...more

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Feb 03, 2019 ashley c rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: non-fiction, philosophy, science, nature

Godfrey-Smith marries his passion for octopi and other cephalopods and his expertise and work on the philosophy of consciousness in this short and readable book. It's interesting how every reader, according to the reviews I read, tackles this book from a different angle. Some are here for the cool colour-changing squid and embodied intelligence of the octopus. Some are here for the discussion of evolution. Some are here for the philosophy. I can't speak for everyone else, but for someone who's Godfrey-Smith marries his passion for octopi and other cephalopods and his expertise and work on the philosophy of consciousness in this short and readable book. It's interesting how every reader, according to the reviews I read, tackles this book from a different angle. Some are here for the cool colour-changing squid and embodied intelligence of the octopus. Some are here for the discussion of evolution. Some are here for the philosophy. I can't speak for everyone else, but for someone who's interested in an introduction and an opinion piece on the philosophy of consciousness by discussing human and non-human animal consciousness, this is a pretty solid book.

"If we can make contact with cephalopods as sentient beings, it is not because of shared history... but because evolution built minds twice over. This is probably the closest we will come to meeting an intelligent alien."

The idea is this: as much as we like to think we do, we don't know a hoot about consciousness, what it is, and what it isn't. Any intuitive, gut-feel opinion you have about what consciousness definitely is would not hold up once you start breaking it down. We try to learn about our own consciousness and that of animals by understanding its history ie. when we think it was formed, and by pitting the two of them at each other (much more complex than that of course but this is beyond me). From there, it leads to other relevant, practical issues, like animal ethics, and... well, all the decisions that the human society have collectively ever made based on our current understanding of consciousness.

For someone who loves exactly what the author is passionate about, this would be the perfect book. Which is to say that it feels like the author wrote this mostly for himself and other enthusiasts of this particular melding of topics. There's something very inspiring reading someone's work that they wrote because they're so very interested in the subject and telling everyone about it.

However, I do agree with some other commentors that this book became quite disjointed because of that. I find myself struggling to interest myself in the author's long descriptions of the scientists' findings at the Octopolis. But a small price to pay for the rest of the book.

I end my review here, but I've written down some notes for myself:

"In the Ediacaran, other animals might be there around you, without being especially relevant. In the Cambrian, each animal becomes an important part of the environment of others. This entanglement of one life in another, and its evolutionary consequences, is due to behavior and the mechanisms controlling it. From this point on, the mind evolved in response to other minds."

"From the early Cambrian onward there was definitely predation, together with everything that predation encourages: tracking, chasing, defending... The revolution in behavior seen in the Cambrian also occurred, in large part, through the unfolding of possibilities inherent in a particular kind of body."

Very interesting revelation here. Considering how embedded in our layman understanding or attempted justifications of morality, societal roles, and many other things is the idea that there is a natural order of how living things or animals or nature that we should somehow emulate, and how it's 'commonsense' that this natural order has always been a prey-predator set-up that is timeless, it's definitely revelatory that there was a period of time not too far removed from nature as we know it that the prey-predator system was evolved from what was once not. Surely we can use this as a learning point to examine our deep-seated beliefs on the 'natural order of things', and step away from giving this argument any sort of weight in our everyday philosophies.

"The octopus, indeed, has a “different embodiment,” but one so unusual that it does not fit any of the standard views in this area. The usual debate is between those who see the brain as an all-powerful CEO and those who emphasize the intelligence stored in the body itself. Both views rely on a distinction between brain-based and body-based knowledge. The octopus lives outside both the usual pictures. Its embodiment prevents it from doing the sorts of things that are usually emphasized in the embodied cognition theories. The octopus, in a sense, is disembodied. That word makes it sound immaterial, which is not, of course, what I have in mind. It has a body, and is a material object. But the body itself is protean, all possibility; it has none of the costs and gains of a constraining and action-guiding body. The octopus lives outside the usual body/brain divide."

Perfect summary to a great chapter Mischief And Craft. I appreciate how the author uses the octopus to present an alternative view to the two mainstream and competing schools of thought on mind-body cognition. ...more

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Nov 03, 2017 Krista rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: nonfiction, 2017

If we want to understand other minds, the minds of cephalopods are the most other of all.

The tagline for Other Minds is: A philosopher dons a wet suit and journeys into the depths of consciousness. And that's exactly what this book is – a philosophical (so, thought experiments rather than empirically sciencey) look at consciousness, and despite the monstrous octopus dominating the cover, cephalopods are so little understood that rather than truly making them the stars of this book, author
If we want to understand other minds, the minds of cephalopods are the most other of all.

The tagline for Other Minds is: A philosopher dons a wet suit and journeys into the depths of consciousness. And that's exactly what this book is – a philosophical (so, thought experiments rather than empirically sciencey) look at consciousness, and despite the monstrous octopus dominating the cover, cephalopods are so little understood that rather than truly making them the stars of this book, author Peter Godfrey-Smith recounts what we understand about the evolution of human consciousness and then holds up the octopus as an example of “other”; we don't know how or what (or if) they think, but it's not like us. As a scuba enthusiast, Godfrey-Smith has spent a lot of time under the sea watching octopuses and cuttlefish, so this book features many beautiful pictures and eyewitness anecdotes, and there are several lab-based octopus experiments discussed, but this isn't really a book about octopuses. The bottom line is that this wasn't the book I was expecting, I wasn't entirely engaged by Godfrey-Smith's writing style, and I was often bored – but still don't regret reading it; there are enough interesting nuggets along the way.

Cephalopods are an island of mental complexity in the sea of invertebrate animals. Because our most recent common ancestor was so simple and lies so far back, cephalopods are an independent experiment in the evolution of large brains and complex behavior. If we can make contact with cephalopods as sentient beings, it is not because of a shared history, not because of kinship, but because evolution built minds twice over. This is probably the closest we will come to meeting an intelligent alien.

After making this intriguing statement in the book's introduction, I mistakenly believed that Godfrey-Smith would then explain to me this alien mind, but he really can't – octopuses can seem curious, display novel thinking to solve problems in the lab, even recognise familiar human faces, but scientists have no idea how they do any of it. Godfrey-Smith goes over the best guesses we have about the evolution of sentience in vertebrates – from simple attract/avoid responses to stimuli, to the body/mind divide, feedback loops and afference, interior monologues as a precursor to language, etc. – and stresses there's no reason to believe that our interior experience is anything like that of the cephalopods. He cites Thomas Nagel and his seminal work What is it like to be a bat? , and really, if Nagel's point was that conciousness is so subjective that humans will never understand the experience of being a related creature like a bat, for example, how could we ever hope to understand the experience of being a creature like an octopus that developed brains in a process completely independent to our own? Godfrey-Smith is constantly asking questions he can't quite answer: Octopuses and cuttlefish engage in nonstop, ever-changing, colourful displays, but are colourblind; why do they bother? Octopuses and cuttlefish only live a year or two before breeding and then suddenly dying; why invest resources into a costly large brain if it's not for a long learning curve? With most of their nervous system distributed through their tentacles – which operate without the central brain's command or even awareness – just what is the role of that central brain?

In an octopus, the nervous system as a whole is a more relevant object than the brain: it's not clear where the brain itself begins and ends, and the nervous system runs all through the body. The octopus is suffused with nervousness; the body is not a separate thing that is controlled by the brain or the nervous system...the body itself is protean, all possibility; it has none of the costs and gains of a constraining and action-guiding body. The octopus lives outside the usual body/brain divide.

Is that an answer? In the end, I suppose, it's the questions that matter most to philosophers, but I didn't find my own mind expanded by what I encountered here; and that's what matters most to me. ...more

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Sep 17, 2017 Paul rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: books-read-2017, royal-society-prize

The mind is a complex entity, we have only scratched the surface in comprehending how it works and what it is capable of. The neural networks that make up the brain are capable of absorbing vast sums of information and making sense of them fast. The intelligence that we have, and can see in other mammals and birds, in particular, other primates, cetaceans, and corvids. There is another set of animals that seem to have also benefited from a large brain and complex neural networks and that is the The mind is a complex entity, we have only scratched the surface in comprehending how it works and what it is capable of. The neural networks that make up the brain are capable of absorbing vast sums of information and making sense of them fast. The intelligence that we have, and can see in other mammals and birds, in particular, other primates, cetaceans, and corvids. There is another set of animals that seem to have also benefited from a large brain and complex neural networks and that is the cephalopods. You’ll probably know them better as cuttlefish, squid and the octopus. These are quite amazing creatures, not only are they aware of all that is going on around them, they can open jars to get the treat inside, have been known to squirt lights with jets of water as they don’t like the brightness and have been found crawling across the floors of laboratories in an escape bid. The skin operates like a high-res video screen as it is able to mimic its surroundings and ripple with colours depending on mood. They have been proven to recognise individual members of staff, even when in the same uniform, so much so that a person they took a dislike too would get drenched when they walked past.

Peter Godfrey-Smith first came across them when someone introduced him to a place they had called Octopolis. This was a place that had many octopi that had brought and discarded scallop shells and begun to make it a safe haven from the predators around. There were a large number of the creatures there that seemed to tolerate each other most of the time, but every now and again there would be running battles between some of the males and Godfrey-Smith was fortunate to capture these on video. Godfrey-Smith though is a philosopher of science, not a biologist, but it got him thinking; just how had this creature had evolved down a separate branch of our shared tree and had ended up at a level of sentience which was quite advanced. The octopi that he regularly sees as he scuba dives off the coast of Sydney are willing to come up and interact with him and the other divers,

It is an interesting book comparing our understanding of human consciousness with a creature that is so alien that we cannot fully get a grip on what it is thinking. There is a lot on the biological makeup of cephalopods and how their brain and nervous system works, as well as a couple of chapters on the evolution of consciousness and how the need to be aware of your surroundings has driven the development of the brain. I would have liked to read more about the observations that they had conducted on Octopolis as the chapters that were there were fascinating. Definitely worth reading for those that have an interest in marine ecology and peering into the dark recesses of the mind. ...more

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Jan 10, 2017 Steven Peck rated it really liked it · review of another edition

A fantastic look at one of Earth's alien creatures. The book was strong on the evolution of consciousness and cephalopods. The author whose work I am familiar with from philosophy of science stuck to the science and did not speculate much beyond. I sort of wish he had. I think a more speculative chapter would have been fascinating given the author's background--especially on the origin of, say, qualia. The author's experiences with this group of animals was especially interesting and it was nice ...more

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Feb 10, 2019 Deborah Ideiosepius rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: 2019-reading-challenge, wordpress, asia-pacific, australiana, science-fact, marine-and-oceanic, animallia

This was a marvelous book, I enjoyed every page, regreted that it was going so fast and I learned so much from it in such an enjoyable fashion!

The title and subtitle very accurately lay out it's contents: It explores the mental worlds of Octopus and other Cephalopods, their intelligence, how they might think, what the internal and external worlds of an animal so different to us might look like.

I read a lot of marine books, anything to do with Cephalopod's in particular I seek out, this book is This was a marvelous book, I enjoyed every page, regreted that it was going so fast and I learned so much from it in such an enjoyable fashion!

The title and subtitle very accurately lay out it's contents: It explores the mental worlds of Octopus and other Cephalopods, their intelligence, how they might think, what the internal and external worlds of an animal so different to us might look like.

I read a lot of marine books, anything to do with Cephalopod's in particular I seek out, this book is one that I found quite exceptionally unique among those I have read. This unusual element I think, can be traced to the fact that the author is a professor of philosophy who has done a lot of scuba diving (I can't describe how jealous I am over all the time he has spend diving Octopolis is New South Wales). And so, as a philosopher, hanging out with marine biologists, observing one of the most amazing animals in the ocean, the book as well as it's subjects, is unique.

The first part of the book tells us a little about the evolution of animals from non-complex forms of life to complex, it describes the early ammonites and belemnites and their descendants, who having ditched the huge shells, became the relatively unprotected octopus and cuttlefish of the modern seas. This was all well written and interesting, interspersed as it was with octopus stories it was lovely to read, but not startlingly new to me. Having a marine biology degree this was more of a refresher for the parts of evolution relevant to the story of octopus that was being told. Though the way in which it was told was fascinating.

Later in the book however, when the author addresses colours? That was a brilliant (pun fully intended) section, there was so much new information and the author brings together beautifully all the small bits of research relevant to the points he is making about octopus intelligence. Anyone who has every marveled at the amazing colour changes and displays of octopus or giant cuttlefish should read this section, I can't imagine it better described.

I think that part of what makes this book so spectacular, at least to a cephalopod nerd like myself, is the beauty and clarity with which it is written. There is all the unfussy clarity and accuracy of an academic for the information, the enthusiasm and the anecdotes of a diver mixed in with the unique perspectives of the philosopher. The last portion of the book, where the exploration of 'minds' really takes place was the most complicated reading for me, I have read a little psychology, and ethics philosophy but not that much or that recently. Again, the author draws from diverse writings relevant to development of 'mind' and then ties it all in to what we know, or think we know about octopus and cuttlefish.

All in all, a marvelous book. I was in equal parts dismayed and delighted at it's end, I wanted more but the ending was a natural one. This is a book I will definitely re-read, in total and in parts. Also the academically precise notes give me a whole list of further reading, if I can get my hands on any of them. ...more

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Dec 27, 2016 Adam McPhee rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: philosophy, animals, science, my-favourite-non-fiction

Cephalopods are an island of mental complexity in the sea of invertebrate animals. Because our most recent common ancestor was so simple and lies so far back, cephalopods are an independent experiment in the evolution of large brains and complex behavior. If we can make contact with cephalopods as sentient beings, it is not because of a shared history, not because of kinship, but because evolution built minds twice over. This is probably the closest we will come to meeting an intelligent alien.

Cephalopods are an island of mental complexity in the sea of invertebrate animals. Because our most recent common ancestor was so simple and lies so far back, cephalopods are an independent experiment in the evolution of large brains and complex behavior. If we can make contact with cephalopods as sentient beings, it is not because of a shared history, not because of kinship, but because evolution built minds twice over. This is probably the closest we will come to meeting an intelligent alien.

I've always found them creepy, but I didn't realize the octopus was so fascinating. Consider:

The most famous octopus anecdotes are tales of escape and thievery, in which octopuses in aquariums raid neighboring tanks at night for food. Those stories, despite their charm, are not especially indicative of high intelligence. Neighboring tanks are not so different from tide pools, even though the entrance and exit take more effort. Here is a behavior I find more intriguing. Octopuses in at least two aquariums have learned to turn off the lights by squirting jets of water at the bulbs when no one is watching, and short-circuiting the power supply. At the University of Otago in New Zealand, this became so expensive that the octopus had to be released back to the wild. A lab in Germany had the same problem. This seems very smart indeed. However, one can also sketch an explanation which may partially deflate the story. Octopuses don’t like bright lights, and they squirt jets of water at all sorts of things that annoy them (as Peter Dews discovered).

...

This case illustrates a more general fact: octopuses have an ability to adapt to the special circumstances of captivity and their interaction with human keepers. Octopuses in the wild are fairly solitary animals. Their social life, in most species, is thought to be minimal (though later I’ll look at exceptions to this pattern). In the lab, however, they are often quick to get the hang of how life works in their new circumstances. For example, it has long appeared that captive octopuses can recognize and behave differently toward individual human keepers. Stories of this kind have been coming out of different labs for years. Initially it all seemed anecdotal. In the same lab in New Zealand that had the “lights-out” problem, an octopus took a dislike to one member of the lab staff, for no obvious reason, and whenever that person passed by on the walkway behind the tank she received a jet of half a gallon of water in the back of her neck. Shelley Adamo, of Dalhousie University, had one cuttlefish who reliably squirted streams of water at all new visitors to the lab, and not at people who were often around. In 2010, an experiment confirmed that giant Pacific octopuses can indeed recognize individual humans, and can do this even when the humans are wearing identical uniforms.

Stefan Linquist, a philosopher who once studied octopus behavior in the lab, puts it like this: “When you work with fish, they have no idea they are in a tank, somewhere unnatural. With octopuses it is totally different. They know that they are inside this special place, and you are outside it. All their behaviors are affected by their awareness of captivity.” Linquist’s octopuses would mess around with their tank, manipulating and testing it. Linquist had a problem with octopuses deliberately plugging the outflow valves on the tanks by poking in their arms, perhaps to increase the water level. Of course, this flooded the entire lab.

Another tale that illustrates Linquist’s point was told to me by Jean Boal, of Millersville University in Pennsylvania. Boal has a reputation as one of the most rigorous and critical of cephalopod researchers. She is known for her meticulous experimental designs, and her insistence that “cognition” or “thought” in these animals should be hypothesized only when experimental results cannot be explained in any simpler way. But like many researchers, she has a few tales of behaviors that are baffling in what they seem to show about the inner lives of these animals. One of these incidents has stayed in her mind for over a decade. Octopuses love to eat crabs, but in the lab they are often fed on thawed-out frozen shrimp or squid. It takes octopuses a while to get used to these second-rate foods, but eventually they do. One day Boal was walking down a row of tanks, feeding each octopus a piece of thawed squid as she passed. On reaching the end of the row, she walked back the way she’d come. The octopus in the first tank, though, seemed to be waiting for her. It had not eaten its squid, but instead was holding it conspicuously. As Boal stood there, the octopus made its way slowly across the tank toward the outflow pipe, watching her all the way. When it reached the outflow pipe, still watching her, it dumped the scrap of squid down the drain.

Godfrey-Smith uses his own fascination with the octopus to ask questions about human consciousness and communication.

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(view spoiler)[When you write something down in order to remind yourself to finish a job later, you are making a mark that your later self will sense—something you’ll perceive. In that respect it’s like the sexton and Revere. But that mark was made by your present self to get your later self to do something that completes a task. In that respect it’s like the internal coordination of activities—action shaping—even though the coordination makes use of a causal loop that runs through the external world. The coordination involves making a mark that will later be sensed.

Some of these useful loops run outside the skin, and some run inside. Efference copies are internal messages, activity in the nervous system. When you move your head and the world seems to remain still, that is achieved by internal means. Here an internal message is used to solve a problem that arises from the effect of action on sensing. But these internal arcs, like the external ones, can also provide opportunities and novel resources. That is how things look within the model I gave earlier for the origins of inner speech. Copies of things you plan to say can give rise to silent actions of their own—inner actions that raise possibilities, put ideas together, and exert self-control. Inner speech can feel a bit like reafference—like the result of an action that affects your senses—but inner speech is confined inside, hence not really heard (at least when things are working as they should). If inner speech is a kind of broadcasting of information in the brain, it resembles the loop of reafference seen when you talk aloud to yourself or write notes to yourself. But this time the loop is tighter and more confined, invisible rather than public, a field for free and silent experiment.

When we see the human mind as the locus of countless loops of this kind, it gives us a different perspective on our own lives and those of other animals. This includes the cephalopods discussed in this book. Their expressive medium, colors and patterns, does not lend itself to complex loops. (That’s true even setting aside the ironies associated with their alleged color-blindness.) Making skin patterns, no matter how complicated they might be, is more of a one-way street. The animal can’t see its own patterns in the way a person can hear what they say. There’s probably not much role for efference copies that involve skin patterns (unless some speculative theories of the role of chromatophores in skin sensing are correct). Cephalopod displays have enormous expressive power, but as long as we’re looking at a single animal, rather than a pair or a group, these displays are not embedded in a lot of looping feedback, and perhaps could never be. The human case—an extreme case—suggests that the opportunities associated with reafference help to drive the evolution of a more complicated mind. Cephalopods are on a different road.

And this is not the only aspect of cephalopod life that circumscribes their possibilities. (hide spoiler)] ...more

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Jun 29, 2018 Ms.pegasus rated it really liked it

Recommends it for: anyone interested in biology or evolution

Recommended to Ms.pegasus by: review in THE ECONOMIST

Shelves: nonfiction, ecosystems-nature

The author's primary goal is examining how evolutionary biology might contribute to our understanding of consciousness. This examination combines scientific observation with philosophical theorizing, and it is not always easy to follow.

I found the first four chapters fascinating. The narrative starts with single cells, perhaps 700 million years ago, hovering in a water column. Their proximity might be conducive to a sensing of surrounding cells. How did these single cells unite to form The author's primary goal is examining how evolutionary biology might contribute to our understanding of consciousness. This examination combines scientific observation with philosophical theorizing, and it is not always easy to follow.

I found the first four chapters fascinating. The narrative starts with single cells, perhaps 700 million years ago, hovering in a water column. Their proximity might be conducive to a sensing of surrounding cells. How did these single cells unite to form multicellular organisms? “Most likely, the origin of animals did not stem from a meeting between lone cells who drifted together. Rather, animals arose from a cell whose daughters did not separate properly during cell division.” (p.29)

Godfrey-Smith writes in an academic style, although he avoids the pitfall of littering his prose with technical jargon. Typically, he poses a question, provides a reasonable and widely held hypothesis, points out flaws, and offers alternative hypotheses. He does this when he offers up a proto-comb jelly rather than the sponge as the earliest branch of multicellular organism. “Again we start with a clump of cells, but then imagine that this clump folds into a filmy globe-like form, swims in a simple rhythm as it lives suspended in the water column. The evolution of animals proceeds from there — from a hovering ghost-like mother, rather than a wriggling sponge larva who refused to settle down.” (p.21)

Godfrey-Smith moves on to question the familiar model of the sensory system as a means for motor control (the sensory-motor model) He points out that motor control is not a simple matter, but a complex system of micro-actions that need to occur in sequence. Coordination, not merely stimulus and response needs to occur. He calls this the action-shaping view of the nervous system.

Conceptual distinctions like this fill this book. They are important questions, but often interrupt the evolutionary narrative Godfrey-Smith is telling at the same time. Just when and how these complexities evolved are only vaguely tied to the transition between two contrasting periods. Life in the Ediacaren Period lasting from 635 to 542 million years ago consisted of passive organisms grazing on an undersea carpet of vegetation. In the next period, the Cambrian, there was an unaccounted for explosion of differentiated organisms with a variety of body types. More important, there is evidence of sensory development designed for predation and defense: antennae, shells, claws, and what biologist Andrew Parker believes was the most significant development, eyes.

One of the most interesting concepts examined is that of perceptual constancy. We view an object from multiple angles and from multiple distances. We interpret these as images of the same object. In order to do this, we need to have a sense of self that's different from the external world. He gives an example of a fish sending out electrical pulses. “The self-produced pulses will affect their own senses, though, and it may be difficult for a fish to distinguish the pulses it has made from electrical disturbances that are due to external things. To deal with this problem, whenever a fish emits a pulse it also sends a copy of the command around to the sensing system, enabling that system to counteract the effect of the pulse it has produced.” (p.83) Implicitly there is the faintest hint of memory. There is an on-going dialogue comparing a perception a nano-second before and a perception of now. This will be the foundation of consciousness.

By now, the reader will be wondering, what about the octopus? The octopus and its relatives the squid and the cuttlefish are almost incidental characters in this evolutionary drama. Readers interested solely in these animals should focus on chapters 3 (“Mischief and Craft”), chapter 5 (“Making Colors”), and chapter 8 (Octopolis). A series of color photographs are included at the end of the book as well. While reading this book I was struck by how interesting Godfrey-Smith's behavioral observations were. They are a reminder that often the most interesting questions and hypotheses arise from observation rather than experiment. In these chapters, the curiosity and potential of these mysterious animals was captured most vividly. He concludes that because of their short life spans and inability to use their color changes as a communication tool, the cephalopods lead lives of circumscribed possibilities. Were they to think about this, they might say the same of us: circumscribed by our lungs and goal-oriented ambitions, we will never experience the wonders of the sea in the same way they do.

NOTES:
This review captures how philosophy structures the narrative of this book. http://www.latimes.com/books/la-ca-jc...

This review captures the difficulty I had with the discussions of consciousness in the book: https://literaryreview.co.uk/eight-ex... ...more

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About Peter Godfrey-Smith

Peter Godfrey-Smith

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I am currently Distinguished Professor of Philosophy at the Graduate Center, CUNY (City University of New York), and Professor of History and Philosophy of Science (half-time) at the University of Sydney.

I grew up in Sydney, Australia. My undergraduate degree is from the University of Sydney, and I have a PhD in philosophy from UC San Diego. I taught at Stanford University between 1991 and 2003, ...more

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“Cephalopods are an island of mental complexity in the sea of invertebrate animals. Because our most recent common ancestor was so simple and lies so far back, cephalopods are an independent experiment in the evolution of large brains and complex behavior. If we can make contact with cephalopods as sentient beings, it is not because of a shared history, not because of kinship, but because evolution built minds twice over.” — 6 likes

“Mischief and craft are plainly seen to be characteristics of this creature. —Claudius Aelianus, third century A.D., writing about the octopus” — 5 likes

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