Other Minds in Science and Inquiry

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Other Minds

Peter Godfrey-Smith

Start date: September 1, 2018

Finish date: September 30, 2018

Discussion: Book Club 2018

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What Members Thought

Jan 12, 2019 Petra lives on a little Caribbean island rated it it was amazing

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

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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Feb 04, 2021 Mary rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: science

Other Minds is science written for the general public that explores the development of the nervous system and the brain as life begins in the ocean. The author is a highly regarded academic in the field of the Philosophy of Science focusing on biological systems.

In this book, he also describes his experiences diving to observe cuttlefish and octopi. He explains how these creatures followed a different development path than vertebrae, like humans. He and other researchers are trying to learn why ...more

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May 22, 2017 Ryan rated it liked it

Shelves: pop-sci

Fascinating details about cephalopods - surprised that much of what we know about the biology, behavior, and genetics of these creatures was only recently learned. I was also intrigued by the details surrounding the evolutionary origins of neurological systems, and the earliest extant fossils.

That said, the book often goes into ponderous tangents of speculation, both scientific and philosophical - and given the brevity of the book, the preliminary, unfocused, if not unconvincing nature of these ...more

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Sep 14, 2018 Silvio rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Not conclusive it meanders however

It is a book that brings your attention. As a diver myself I found that we had the same interests: octopuses look really smart... it wanders a bit sometimes you do not get where it goes and as the author admits at the end, he had many reasons to write the book: like his love for the sea and its creatures and octopuses and cuttlefish and squids in particular. The last sentence of the book 鈥渄iving into the ocean it is getting into our past鈥� made a lot of sense to ...more

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Aug 22, 2021 Bel rated it liked it

Shelves: non-fiction, science, audiobooked, philosophy

I can't remember what I was expecting when I bought this audiobook, but I was pleasantly surprised to find that the author is a philosopher not a biologist. There was a lot of food for thought in here about the nature and evolution of consciousness. Ultimately it was somewhat let down by some odd structuring, but it was definitely worth the read. ...more

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