What if intelligent life on Earth evolved not once, but twice? The octopus is the closest we will come to meeting an intelligent alien. What can we learn from the encounter?
In Other Minds, the philosopher and scuba diver Peter Godfrey-Smith explores the startling evolutionary journey of the cephalopods. It all started for him when he began scuba diving near Sydney:
“I came across the octopuses by chance, by spending time in the water. I began following them around, and eventually started thinking about their lives. After all, the sea is the original home of the mind, at least in its first faint forms.”
Professor Godfrey-Smith explores what we know about the intelligence of cephalopods, including the tricks they play on the scientists who try to study them. He looks back 600 million years, to reveal the worm-like creature which was the last common ancestor connecting us with the octopus. He visits an extraordinary site off the coast of Australia, Octopolis, where the animals have developed a kind of city under the sea. And he meditates on why the octopus, with such high intelligence, lives for such a short time.
In this final episode, he asks us to imagine what it feels like to be an octopus, raising big questions about the nature of animal consciousness. What is the nature of their consciousness, and how does it challenge the usual way we think about the brain/body divide?
“In an octopus, it’s not clear where the brain itself begins and ends, and the nervous system runs all through the body. The octopus is suffused with nervousness; the body is not a separate thing that is controlled by the brain or nervous system.
“The usual philosophical debate is between those who see the brain as an all-powerful CEO and those who emphasise the intelligence stored in the body itself. Both views rely on a distinction between brain-based and body-based knowledge. The octopus lives outside both the usual pictures. It lives outside the brain/body divide.”
Peter Godfrey-Smith is a professor in the School of History and Philosophy of Science at the University of Sydney.
Read by Tim McInnerny
Abridged and produced by Elizabeth Burke
Sound design by Chris Maclean
A Loftus Media production for BBC Radio 4 Show less