Recommendations from our site
“What is so compelling about octopuses is, as he says, that they are ‘suffused with nervousness’. They are radically different from vertebrate creatures in that their very body is in part their nervous system. There are twice as many neurons in its tentacles as there are in its brain – about 10,000 neurons per sucker. They can sense the world through their arms. Their nervous system is diffused, not centralised.” Read more...
Noga Arikha, Philosopher
“If you ask what it is like to be a certain kind of creature, then that’s a question about consciousness. But then you try to imagine it. I cannot imagine having eight limbs, all of which are semi-autonomous. Godfrey-Smith goes into wonderful detail about how the system works. If you chop one of the tentacles off, it can still carry out meaningful movements and actions. I cannot imagine this and I cannot imagine not having a skeleton and being able to squeeze myself through the tiniest little gap and my limbs going through and then reaching out and grabbing eight things at once and doing different things with them all. It’s so hard to imagine. That’s what I loved about the book: the intricate details that he gives on octopus behaviour and on octopus evolution. “ Read more...
The best books on Consciousness
Susan Blackmore, Psychologist
