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

This was a profoundly interesting book to read. I became intrigued after seeing a review of it and had never come across the author before. It was intriguing primarily for the subject matter which I had a minor level of curiosity about. It was however, the first book I have read about cephalopods. My other experiences have been by reading articles and lately watching YouTube videos.It is not simply about octopuses and squids though. It is about using those life forms to explore bigger things like intelligence, consciousness and how animals including humans understand their environment. The author explores evolutionary possibilities about how animals come to relate to conspecifics, predators and prey. There are others which do not fit any of those categories.As a book written for a popular audience it is not replete with scientific jargon and when new words or concepts are introduced, they are explained in understandable language with very good examples to provide perspective. Maybe the thing I appreciated the most was that it was written using a lot of questions and humble suggestions rather than offering grand new theories. It made for a far more thought provoking read than some others in the genre. Those questions and suggestions are too many for a book review but below a few will be presented.It is nearly an aside here, but a philosopher who does field research by scuba diving off the coast of Australia with scientists and whose research reveals not raw data for laboratory testing but philosophical insight, makes the author himself a very interesting character. Some of his experiences can be viewed here.Early in the book the reader is introduced to cephalopods by way of the scuba diving anecdotal stories of their engagement with the humans. In particular, he means the interactions with the author. Certainly the cephalopod does not recognize that object as we do but something like a dark animal with no face, four arms and many bubbles exuding from them. Nevertheless the author experienced them reaching a tentacle or arm out to tactilely probe the object of this encounter-to the point of attempting to pull them into the lair. This behavior suggests the importance of feel to the cephalopod’s repertoire of resources that help it survive and bring forth spawn.He also observed their visual observance of everything around them. They watched the scuba divers but also their entire landscape for friend, foe and neutral bodies. Well maybe just for foe as the writer indicated often, these species are generally indifferent to their conspecifics. He did remark on variation from the rule here as he did whenever he was making a general statement about behaviors. Noting exceptions to the rule is critical to explanation and for the non-scientist reader, valuable.He brought up the fact of the elaborate nervous systems of these animals and how that plays with the brilliant abilities for the animals to shape shift as if to conform to their surroundings which included immediate color changes. It is remarkable for many reasons but a couple include the fact that the colorations do not occur as if by one mechanism but instead by many yet it occurs so quickly it appears as if by simplicity. It is a three step process since they mechanisms occur at three different layers of skins. The details are in the book but not here. They are too fascinating for my own interpretation. He does provide an image however.The other bizarre curiosity is that lab results strongly suggest that they are colorblind. Something within the nervous system that is not visual ignites the instantaneous processes that allow the color change and body morphing. He examines this through two different operations of the nervous systems one in which is the taking of sensory cues from the environment with the innate motor skills respond like autonomic reactions. The other is a simpler stimulus response action based on what occurs on the spot like the flight or fight response.In this discussion he cited other philosophers of consciousness to remind us that interpretation involves a lot of questions. There is nothing certain and plenty that may be probable. In efforts to describe animal behavior from a non-anthropomorphic perspective, the observer may not always see the forest for the trees. Yet we are thrust into a situation where it is difficult to understand information and the processing of it from other than a human perspective. We also have to treat information as a physical thing-something to be measured. Is it? Or is it reducible to a binomial sort of impulse and response an immediate (and evolutionarily adaptive) reaction? This is a debated question amongst those examining what is meant by “consciousness”. In fact it remains sort of a Gordian knot and there are dualists who consider that consciousness is made up of a “functional” quality which is the 1s and 0s of binomial information. It also has a “phenomenal” essence that involves the interpretational or conscious experience. The former is said to control behavior and the latter simply is consciousness. It is these sort of issues that the author proposes not to find concrete answers but to ask additional questions. Godfrey-Smith ponders hard on the notion of consciousness saying “It’s sometimes hard to work out how these theories relate to my own target here: subjective experience in a very broad sense. I treat subjective experience as a broad category and consciousness as a narrower category within it— not everything that an animal might feel has to be conscious.” More important than defining consciousness, the author provides much to consider and the reader can take advantage of that.Back to the animals, the author discovered several things that also make the reader think. With the knowledge that cephalopods have a very intricate nervous system it would seem that it would take years to develop and yet he informs us that these species have a very short life span. In most cases four years would be very long. He asks about the evolutionary benefit of this intricate structure to only exist for so short a time. They hardly have time to use their wondrous skills when they are replaced by the next generation.They are semelparous meaning that they only reproduce once in a lifetime and in their case, the female dies right after spawning. They also use a deimatic display which is one of complete submission and the author examined this many times and offers suggestions as to why. These beasts are so capable of camouflaging for protection as well as to predate, why would they need a passive and subordinate display? It is not used when flight would work or an attempt to startle something it would eat. There is no clear answer but he believes it is used when a more aggressive conspecific appears.There is much to learn about cephalopods and there is scarce information of them historically. Being soft bodied they do not preserve well so the fossil record is nearly non-existent. His own efforts at first hand observation are in coordination with biologists and other scientists. There is much study of them going on today. It is clear that the bounty of possible research is hindered by decreasing habitat. That is a problem that the study of any animal behavior faces. With climate change comes both a loss of habitat, but a change in behavior as well. Various species adapt differently to changing environment environments such as warming waters.This was an easy book to not put down. The pace was lively and informative yet never certain. The book makes the curious reader intent on learning more of the subject matter. He provided lots of philosophical questions for the reader to ponder.

I'm probably not the ideal audience for this book. I'm a casual fan of science, but to Godfrey-Smith's credit, "Other Minds," despite its weighty themes, is very readable for a non-scientist lay person. The author's contention that humans and cephalopods connect somewhere on the evolutionary tree is interesting. It seems like the impulse with books of this sort is to go back to the beginning, which Godfrey-Smith does, to flatworms breaking free of the primordial ooze and developing bilateral bodies and central nervous systems. Again, the author lays all this out as clearly as possible, but it's still not exactly a captivating way to start a book. Things get much more compelling when he starts describing human interactions with octopuses and giant cuttlefish, both of which are very curious and friendly creatures. Octopuses have been proven to achieve certain tasks in the lab, showing their intelligence. I was surprised that the octopus lives only a short time, one or two years, and Godfrey-Smith wonders why so much energy is invested in a complex nervous system given this short lifespan. The author spends a lot of time dwelling on the vivid colors and color changes of the cuttlefish, and it is indeed interesting, although I'm not as convinced that these color changes are a form of intra-species communication. To me, the changes seem more like a way to either camouflage the animal or confuse attackers, and maybe to attract mates. But as the author points out, there is much we still don't know about cephalopods. Godfrey-Smith is clearly intrigued by these creatures. Despite being a philosopher trained and teaching in the US, he appears to have started a thriving second career as an underwater photographer and biologist in Australia. I commend him for linking these passions, yet in "Other Minds" I found the result jarring at times. The subtitle made me think the book would concern itself primarily with the octopus, but--like I said--it begins with worms and touches on fossils, cuttlefish, primates, octopuses in a lab setting, cephalopods on their native turf, the aging process. The book even ends with a plea for environmental conservation. There were lots of interesting points made throughout, but I couldn't find any prevailing theme I was meant to take from "Other Minds." I'd argue that it's not so much an enlightening book about the origins of consciousness, but if readers have much interest in marine biology then it's well worth considering.

Este pedido fue entregado en tiempo y forma

I really enjoyed this book and probably will re read it at some point.

Author is a philosopher, not a biologist, although many marine biologists clearly had their hand on the construction of this book. It's an easy read and an interesting one at that, but at times it felt a bit lacking when it came to the biological field, so take it as philosophical book above all and you won't be disappointed.

Es muy bueno

A bridge between naturalism and philosophy. Very pleasant and relaxing.