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I would recommend these scifi books https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/25499718-children-of-tim... And https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/40376072-children-of-rui... Lots of fun reading them, great author :)
For context so that people don't need to click on links: the first book is about uplifted, sentient spiders; the second one is about uplifted octopii. Both are absolutely great, I highly recommend them!
It's an old trope in Sci Fi that alien intelligences would be so different from us that we couldn't even begin to comprehend them. Octopuses belie that idea... although we share some DNA, our last common ancestors barely had a nervous system, so any similarities in cognition between us really are the product of paralllel evolution. And since their environments are also very different from ours, this parallel evoution…
Can we comprehend them? From what I've read about it, consciousness in octopuses has to be completely alien to ours, because it's spread out over multiple brain centers, including one for each arm. So the arm is a semi-intelligent entity of its own. No idea to what extent the article discusses this; part of it is blocked by a paywall, after which it continues about eating moluscs. But just like people eat octopuses,…
It's an old trope in Sci Fi that alien intelligences would be so different from us that we couldn't even begin to comprehend them. Octopuses belie that idea... although we share some DNA, our last common ancestors barely had a nervous system, so any similarities in cognition between us really are the product of paralllel evolution. And since their environments are also very different from ours, this parallel evoution…
The article mentions [NSFW!] The Dream of the Fisherman's Wife [1] (erotic Japanese art from 1814) and the books Other Minds: The Octopus, the Sea, and the Deep Origins of Consciousness [2] by Peter Godfrey-Smith and The Soul of an Octopus: A Surprising Exploration into the Wonder of Consciousness by Sy Montgomery [3].
[1] NSFW! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Dream_of_the_Fisherman%27s...
[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Other_Minds:_The_Octopus,_the_...
[3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sy_Montgomery
EDIT: added NSFW! warnings.
Edit:
For anybody who had the same problem as me, try using a different device or privacy mode.
I can't access it on my PC due to the paywall but can on my phone (same, synced browser).
1. No social interaction or learning. Octopuses[1] live alone.
2. Short life span. Most of them live only few years in the wild.
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[1] https://www.merriam-webster.com/words-at-play/the-many-plura...
https://www.wikipedia.org/wiki/What_Is_It_Like_to_Be_a_Bat%3...
It's an old trope in Sci Fi that alien intelligences would be so different from us that we couldn't even begin to comprehend them. Octopuses belie that idea... although we share some DNA, our last common ancestors barely had a nervous system, so any similarities in cognition between us really are the product of paralllel evolution. And since their environments are also very different from ours, this parallel evoution…
It's an old trope in Sci Fi that alien intelligences would be so different from us that we couldn't even begin to comprehend them. Octopuses belie that idea... although we share some DNA, our last common ancestors barely had a nervous system, so any similarities in cognition between us really are the product of paralllel evolution. And since their environments are also very different from ours, this parallel evoution…
Can we comprehend them? From what I've read about it, consciousness in octopuses has to be completely alien to ours, because it's spread out over multiple brain centers, including one for each arm. So the arm is a semi-intelligent entity of its own. No idea to what extent the article discusses this; part of it is blocked by a paywall, after which it continues about eating moluscs. But just like people eat octopuses,…