Other Minds

Slogs a bit in the middle, but overall deeply fascinating.

My low rating may well be unfairly swayed by the fact that I bought this hoping for more of a study of octopuses specifically, and this book was about ‘intelligence' more generally and looking at the different types of intelligence that evolution has ended up creating. There are a few anecdotal stories about octopuses escaping their tanks to eat fish and some discussion of how they can change their skin colour but they are all too brief. The rest of the book deals more in the current scientific understandings of what intelligence means and how it might have evolved and while interesting, not really what I was looking for.

The author's style was a bit wishy washy. He often referenced research in passing but didn't offer any details about the experiments or how they worked, leaving you wanting more, and sometimes unclear as to how these unexplained studies actually related to the points he was trying to make.

For example:

rats with a severed spinal cord, and hence no channel from the site of body damage to the brain, can exhibit some of what looks like “pain behavior,” and can even show a form of learning that responds to the damage

This is a really well planned out book, which tried to explain in thorough detail, but in ways the general public can understand a wide array of scientific research - primarily evolutionary biology, but also aspects of behavioural science - signaling, communication and a whole bunch of other things that factor into the evolution of octopus and (giant) cuttlefish - which form the largest part of this book. In passing it also deals with comparable animals (including humans), such as bees, pigeons, squid, other mollusks - but only where applicable to octopus and giant cuttlefish.

The author is Australian, and for the large part is observing octopus and giant cuttlefish in the ocean near Sydney, but the experimentation and research he quotes is from much further afield. With a strong philosophy background, it does seem that the author does come up with some philosophical conclusions which seem a stretch from the direct scientific research, but almost all of this steps beyond my ability to really process at an an intelligent level. By this, I mean, that I can happily follow what I am reading, and understand each point made, but I don't form a basis in which I can challenge any of the conclusions, and probably now would only have a few scattered (probably incorrect) facts on what I have read to re-share. I read for relaxation, and enjoyed this book a lot, but I don't really retain such knowledge in the long term - I have too much other stuff taking up my limited brainpower. This if course is no criticism of the book, just my excuse for not fact-sharing in this review.

5 stars - short and punchy, but constantly interesting.

I really wanted to enjoy this book, the premise of it seemed fascinating especially to someone like myself who has a fondness for marine life and has a background in biology, the octopus is even one of my favorite animals. Unfortunately the author didn't stayed academically focused and that's where it lost my interest. The author seemed to talk more about himself and personal experiences than what I thought the book would contain and it wasn't exactly what I signed up for. I made it about half way before giving up on this. Reading through other reviews it seems I'm not alone.

An exploration of the minds of cephalopods (octopus, cuttlefish, squid) who are among the smartest creatures in the animal kingdom, while also being furthest removed from human brains, on the evolutionary tree of origin. Which makes them the most interesting “other minds” around, to study.

All the anecdotal descriptions of the cephalopod world, their sneaky behaviors, their watchful eyes, their forming of underwater society octopolis, and many more, were fascinating. The image of the lab-kept octopus with an attitude, who rejected its unsatisfactory meal by demonstratively dropping it into the tank's filter drain, while also making sure that the keeper watched, will definitely stick :)

It's also interesting to learn about the octopus's distributed neural system, and their color-changing and color-sensing skin. Such a crime that most of these fascinating creatures only get to live 2-3 years. All in all good read, but the book slightly lost me when it left the octopi world and dug more into general theories of consciousness.

Not bad, but I would have preferred more information about the octopus and less meandering about consciousness. The writing is quite good when it's about concrete matters. It quickly degenerates into rambling when it's about less concrete stuff, unfortunately.

2.5 stars I thought I would be more captivated than I was...

Fascinating material, greatly enhanced by the author's diving experiences. Thought-provoking questions on the origins and purposes of communication and on the multiple independent origins (twice? possibly three times?) of intelligence. Mind-boggling facts (new to me) about octopus and cuttlefish behavior. Unfortunately, although the title promises an exploration of consciousness, I don't think there was much treatment of that question. I also found the editing somewhat lax: frequent disjointed thematic jumps, even mid-paragraph, requiring some mental gymnastics to reorient. Even so, I highly recommend this book as a way to learn more about our world and our selves.

Over octopussen en hun familieleden, en in hoeverre ze een bewustzijn hebben, en (spoiler ;-) hoe dat dan ontstaan (want onafhankelijk van bv de onze). Fascinerende weetjes over octopussen, zoals dat hun hersenen over hun poten verspreid zitten, en die poten een enigszins eigen wil hebben, waarbij het centrale brein het nog een beetje probeert aan te sturen.

Surely this is one of the best book I've ever read about neuroscience, cosciousness, animal behavior and philosophy. I am usually a little bit skeptical about neuroscience books written by philosophers who just choose scientific results relevant to their theories. I prefer to read books about scientist. However, after reading this book, I think philosopher can give a great contribution to neuroscience even if this contribution has to be taken cautiously as not to cause prejudices. About this book, it is full of inspiring points about cosciousness related to animal behavior and humans.
Really worthy to read.

Wonderful. The best science/philosophy volume I have read in a while. Other Minds is full of informative, factual delights, but exudes warmth and love for the complexity and beauty of our natural world.

Peter Godfrey-Smith has a passion for cephalopods, the class of sea animals that includes the octopus, cuttlefish, and nautilus, among others. Animals that among the oldest creatures on this planet.

Measured in numbers of neurons, the octopus has the largest brain of all invertebrates. Its eyes are remarkably similar to ours. And, like us, the octopus can unscrew jars, recognize faces, plot creative escapes, and generally make plenty of mischief.

Peter notes instances of octopuses, who don't like bright lights, squirting jets of water at the lights above their tanks in order to short circuit them. In another case, an octopus didn't like a specific researcher and always sent a dose of water her way when she passed.

Their ability to change colors is hard to fathom. And nobody has fully cracked the code for what all those colors and patterns mean. Darker colors tend to signal aggression; an octopus will turn black when attacking another. But often it seems the light show is occurring completely on its own.

Godfrey-Smith devotes about half of the book exploring the evolution of sentience, which I found the least interesting aspect of the book. Then again, it's hard to compete with an octopus. What I most enjoyed about the book were his experiences with them in their environment. Peter spent a great amount of time off the coast of Australia at a place known as Octopolis because it was home to so many of these creatures. Witnessing their interactions, their soap opera lives, and the tragic briefness of it all – they only live a few years – is by itself good enough reason to read this book.

What's sobering about this book is learning about the many scientific tests conducted on these creatures, some using electric shocks. Fortunately, these animals now receive a degree of protection as “honorary vertebrates,” but that doesn't save them from the prison of tanks.

What's nice about this book is how it places the reader underwater with these amazing creatures, hopefully, encouraging readers to consider what they can do to protect them. Giving up on calamari (and all seafood) would be a good start.

Peter Godfrey-Smith has a passion for cephalopods, And by the end of this book I suspect most readers will as well.

This review first appeared on EcoLit Books:
http://ecolitbooks.com/