Sean Carroll's Mindscape: Science, Society, Philosophy, Culture, Arts, and Ideas

249 | Peter Godfrey-Smith on Sentience and Octopus Minds

Sep 11, 2023

01:28:06

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Peter Godfrey-Smith, expert in cognition and sentience, discusses the nature of thinking in animals with different brains. Topics include the evolution of consciousness, the intelligence of octopuses, and the complexity of nervous systems. They also explore autonomy in octopus limbs and perspectives on brain activity and oscillatory dynamics.

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Quick takeaways

The evolution of complex nervous systems in different species highlights the influence of environmental challenges and opportunities.

Octopuses demonstrate signs of intelligence and likely possess sentience or consciousness.

The combination of point-to-point interactions and holistic electrical patterns in nervous systems contributes to complex behavior and cognitive abilities.

Deep dives

The Evolution of Complex Nervous Systems

Complex nervous systems evolved independently in different evolutionary lines due to the challenges and opportunities posed by the environment. The common ancestor of humans and octopuses lived around 600 million years ago and had a simple nervous system, possibly resembling a centimeter-sized worm. Over time, behavioral complexity and cognitive abilities developed in different evolutionary branches, leading to the diverse range of animals we see today.

The Cognitive Role of Frequency in Flies

01:22

The Importance of Octopuses in Understanding Consciousness and Sentience

02:46

The Unique Approach of Octopuses and Their Behavioral Complexity

03:20

Introduction

4min

Exploring the Evolution and Minds of Cephalopods

4min

Exploring the Concept of Consciousness

6min

Exploring Sentience and Consciousness in Various Organisms

3min

Octopuses: Intelligent Problem Solvers

15min

Evolution of Complex Nervous Systems in Cephalopods and Octopuses

6min

Autonomy and Central Control in Octopuses

21min

Perspectives on Brain Activity and Nervous Systems

30min

The study of cognition and sentience would be greatly abetted by the discovery of intelligent alien beings, who presumably developed independently of life here on Earth. But we do have more than one data point to consider: certain vertebrates (including humans) are quite intelligent, but so are certain cephalopods (including octopuses), even though the last common ancestor of the two groups was a simple organism hundreds of millions of years ago that didn't have much of a nervous system at all. Peter Godfrey-Smith has put a great amount of effort into trying to figure out what we can learn about the nature of thinking by studying how it is done in these animals with very different brains and nervous systems.

Blog post with transcript: https://www.preposterousuniverse.com/podcast/2023/09/11/249-peter-godfrey-smith-on-sentience-and-octopus-minds/

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Peter Godfrey-Smith received his Ph.D. in philosophy from the University of California, San Diego. He is currently professor in the School of History and Philosophy of Science at the University of Sydney. Among his books are Other Minds: The Octopus, the Sea, and the Deep Origins of Consciousness and Metazoa: Animal Life and the Birth of the Mind.

Here are some of the papers mentioned in this episode:

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