the octopus and the evolution of intelligent life

What does it mean that intelligence on Earth has evolved not once but twice? And that the mind of the octopus is nonetheless so different from our own? Combining science and philosophy with first-hand accounts of his cephalopod encounters, Godfrey-Smith shows how primitive organisms bobbing in the ocean began sending signals to each other and how these early forms of communication gave rise to the advanced nervous systems that permit cephalopods to change colours and human beings to speak.īy tracing the problem of consciousness back to its roots and comparing the human brain to its most alien and perhaps most remarkable animal relative, Godfrey-Smith’s Other Minds sheds new light on one of our most abiding mysteries. New research shows that these marvellous creatures display remarkable gifts. But one other branch of the tree of life has also sprouted surprising intelligence: the cephalopods, consisting of the squid, the cuttlefish, and above all the octopus. Mammals and birds are widely seen as the smartest creatures on earth. Wonderful Life: The Burgess Shale and the Nature of History. In this book, he brings his parallel careers together to tell a bold new story of how nature became aware of itself.

He is also a scuba diver whose underwater videos of warring octopuses have attracted wide notice. Peter Godfrey-Smith is a leading philosopher of science. Bacteria may go back as much as 3 to 4 billion years, but, to be fair, they are unicellular. Cephalopods are molluscs, a phylum of invertebrate animals that also includes creatures like clams, oysters, and snails. Peter Godfrey-Smith | Other Minds: The Octopus and the Evolution of Intelligent LifeĪ philosopher dons a wet suit and journeys into the depths of consciousness. The octopus may have had more than half a billion years to evolve, but sharks aren’t far behind and nobody’s done a documentary about sharks embracing seafaring humans in fact, we prefer they not do that. Peter Godfrey-Smith’s Other Minds: The Octopus and the Evolution of Intelligent Life is an insightful look into the inner life of octopuses and other cephalopods.

The octopus and the evolution of intelligent life