Other Minds: The Octopus, … by Peter Godfrey-Smith ***

Other Minds: The Octopus, the Sea, and theDeep Origins of Consciousness by Peter Godfrey-Smith opens with the tantalizing “[Octopuses] are an independent experiment in the evolution of large brains and complex behavior. … This is probably the closest we will ever come to meeting an intelligent alien.” If you are interested in the evolution of intelligence and consciousness, this book is for you. Be warned that the reading is slow and often challenging.

Brains and nerves, in their most primitive forms, have two functions. One is signaling like “one if by land, two if by sea” in the Paul Revere example. The second is coordinating like the coxswain keeping time for the crew of a rowing team. These functions are fundamentally different and both necessary. Signaling connects the organism to the outside world. Coordinating is an internal function.

How did death at old age evolve? Imagine a lethal mutation that only acts after fertility stops. Evolution would not select against this mutation. As such mutations build up, death after fertility becomes more common. This would be even quicker if the mutation was beneficial during fertility. This explains why people die in old age.

Octopuses die after a single fertility cycle. Their life is risky. They have no natural defenses. They put everything into a single fertility cycle since it makes no sense to save something for an unlikely second cycle.

This book has a lot of careful logic in response to subtle questions about evolution.

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