Other Minds Buchzusammenfassung - das Wichtigste aus Other Minds

Einleitung anhören

00:00

Zusammenfassung von Other Minds

Name: Other Minds
Rating: 4.1 (141 reviews)
Author: Peter Godfrey-Smith

Peter Godfrey-Smith

The Octopus And The Evolution Of Intelligent Life

4.1 (141 Bewertungen)

15 Min.

Themen

Animals

Inhaltsübersicht

Other Minds
in 6 Kernaussagen verstehen

Audio & Text in der Blinkist App

Kernaussage 1 von 6

What’s in it for me? Take a wondrous and thoughtful look at the underwater life of the octopus.

If you’ve ever seen an octopus in real life, you doubtless noticed its graceful and curious movements. These amazing creatures of the sea have not only made researchers question long-held beliefs about the intelligence of animals; they also offer a beautiful example of what the long and complex process of evolution can produce.

What’s more, the octopus is not only beautiful; it’s also remarkably intelligent. In fact, their cleverness has led some to question the traditional scientific opinion that animals don’t experience the same kind of self-aware consciousness as humans.

These blinks help you understand the evolution, biology and intelligence of the octopus. In doing so, they pose interesting questions about the nature of animal consciousness.

In these blinks, you’ll also discover

what the octopus looked like millions of years ago;
why you might be able to say that octopus skin has a mind of its own; and
what jay birds may be able to tell us about animal intelligence.

Animals evolved from organisms that, though unicellular, still displayed behaviors.

The earth is around 4.5 billion years old. And though there has been life on the planet for about 3.8 billion years, animal life only started to appear around 1.5 billion years ago. Before that, it was just unicellular organisms. But these simple life forms, though they only possessed one cell, are more interesting than you might think.

Unicellular organisms may not be terribly complex, but they can still exhibit behavior by recognizing and reacting to their surroundings.

Take E. coli bacteria, for example. This single-celled organism can live in and around our bodies, and it has a sense of smell and taste – that is, it can sense the presence of edible chemicals thanks to sensory molecules near its outer membrane. Then, with the help of its small tendrils, known as flagella, it can swim toward these chemicals. Not bad for a life form with just one cell!

Remarkably, unicellular organisms can also display social behavior.

The bacteria that live inside Hawaiian squids, for example, are responsible for the chemical reaction that produces a light known as bioluminescence. But these bacteria will only produce this reaction if they sense a nearby concentration of another molecule, known as an inducer molecule, which is produced by this same kind of bacteria.

So each individual bacteria will figure out how many other potential light-producers are nearby, and this will determine how much light they produce. The higher the concentration of bacteria, the brighter the light.

In a way, it’s all a social, collaborative effort: if they know that there are neighbors who will produce light, they will produce it, too.

Such sensing and signaling between simple organisms played a big part in our evolutionary history. At some point, these interactions between organisms began happening within multicellular organisms, which then led to the evolution of bigger and bigger organisms, eventually producing what we call animals.

This evolution wouldn’t have happened if not for the coordination and collaboration between the individual cells that make up the bodies of animals. And in the blinks that follow, we’ll take a closer look at a particular animal that continues to fascinate: the majestic octopus.

The octopus, once a harmless mollusk, evolved into a jet-propelled predator.

Most of us have never been up close and personal with an octopus, but an initial interaction might look like this: you reach out a hand and the octopus grabs hold of it, using its suckers, which provide a disturbingly tight grip. As it pulls you closer, you might realize that it’s actually tasting you, thanks to the millions of nerve cells that are contained in the arm that is being wrapped around your hand.

While the octopus is a fearsome predator today, millions of years ago it was a rather harmless, limpet-like mollusk, with a hard shell that protected it from predators. Like today’s mussels and oysters, it likely had one meaty foot that it used as an anchor and to crawl along the seabed.

Octopus skin can change color and react to its environment without the aid of the brain.

Imagine that you’re scuba diving and you come to a coral reef, where you notice something hiding under a ledge, its color perfectly matching its surroundings. As you approach, you see that it’s a giant cuttlefish, a close relative of the octopus, who emerges and begins to put on a spectacular light show. Suddenly, brilliant stripes of red, green, silver and blue begin to ripple down from its head to its arms, the colors changing from moment to moment.

Sure, other animals such as chameleons can also change color, but none can do it as fast and fantastically as cuttlefish and octopuses. Their range of color is wider, not to mention more wondrous.

Octopuses and cuttlefish have short life spans due to evolutionary changes and the birthing process.

If you’re like the author, you might have seen cuttlefish on a scuba-diving adventure and assumed that the animals could live for dozens of years. After all, it’s not uncommon to look into their eyes and sense some sort of aged wisdom. The animals can also appear to be familiar with human behavior, as if they’d spent time with many different divers.

But the truth is, any cuttlefish you run into is likely not more than one or two years old because, sadly, the lives of both cuttlefish and octopuses are incredibly short, lasting no more than a year or two.

There is no consensus on whether animals experience a complex consciousness.

So what do you imagine an octopus thinks about the amazing color show that plays across their skin?

This has been a long-standing question that many philosophers and scientists have debated, and, so far, the prevailing attitude is that animals like the octopus are not conscious, or capable of self-reflection. But the matter is far from settled.

Darwin and modern science believe language is needed for complex thought, but some animals suggest otherwise.

Another subject of frequent debate among scientists, biologists and zoologists, is how an animal like an octopus communicates. This also pertains to the question of consciousness, since many believe that a species must have some sort of language in order to be capable of complex thought.

Charles Darwin was one of the first to champion the argument that language is a prerequisite for thought.

Du möchtest die gesamte Zusammenfassung von Other Minds sehen?

Kernaussagen in Other Minds

Mehr Wissen in weniger Zeit

Sachbücher auf den Punkt gebracht

Kernaussagen aus Sachbüchern in ca. 15 Minuten pro Titel lesen & anhören mit den „Blinks”

Zeitsparende Empfehlungen

Titel, die dein Leben bereichern, passend zu deinen Interessen und Zielen

Podcasts in Kurzform ^Neu

Kernaussagen wichtiger Podcasts im Kurzformat mit den neuen „Shortcasts”

Worum geht es in Other Minds?

Other Minds (2016) is an exploration of the evolution of the octopus. Once a limpet-like creature that crawled along the bottom of the ocean, the octopus is now an intelligent and unique predator. Peter Godfrey-Smith guides the reader through billions of years of evolutionary history to explain the development of complex life, while shedding light on one of the world’s most intriguing animals.

Bestes Zitat aus Other Minds

Octopuses are still classified as mollusks, making them part of the same group of animals that clams and oysters belong to.

—Peter Godfrey-Smith

Wer Other Minds lesen sollte

Students of biology and zoology
Readers interested in evolutionary science
Animal lovers

Über den Autor

Peter Godfrey-Smith has a PhD in philosophy from the University of California, San Diego. He currently teaches at both the City University of New York and the University of Sydney, where he specializes in the philosophy of history and biology. His previous book, Darwinian Populations and Natural Selection, was awarded the 2010 Lakatos Award for an outstanding work on the philosophy of science.

Kategorien mit Other Minds

Nature & the Environment

Ähnlich wie Other Minds

Being You

Anil Seth

A New Science of Consciousness

The Inside Story of the Ever-Changing Brain

The Science of Self-Awareness

19 min

4.4

How Emotions Are Made

Lisa Feldman Barrett

The Secret Life of the Brain

17 min

4.1

A Hunter-Gatherer's Guide to the 21st Century

Heather Heying and Bret Weinstein

Evolution and the Challenges of Modern Life

A Brief History of Culture, Sex, War and the Evolution of Us

21 min

4.2

The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck

Mark Manson

A Counterintuitive Approach to Living a Good Life

What to Say to Get Your Way

17 min

4.6

Thinking, Fast and Slow

Daniel Kahneman

Intuition or deliberation? Where you can (and can't) trust your brain

28 min

4.5

Seven and a Half Lessons about the Brain

Lisa Feldman Barrett

Have Your Understanding of Consciousness, Emotions, and Memory Revolutionized

20 min

4.1

How to Think Like a Philosopher

Peter Cave

Scholars, Dreamers and Sages Who Can Teach Us How to Live

18 min

4.3

The Invention of Nature

Andrea Wulf

Alexander von Humboldt’s New World

The Biohacker's Guide to Getting the Body and Mind You Want

How Your Brain Tricks You Into Expecting the Worst and What You Can Do about It

Critical Thinking in the Information Age

12 min

3.6

That Little Voice in Your Head

Mo Gawdat

Adjust the Code That Runs Your Brain

20 min

4.5

Happy Mind, Happy Life

Rangan Chatterjee

The New Science of Mental Well-Being

Artificial Intelligence and the Problem of Control

22 min

4.5

The Man's Guide to Women

John Gottman

Scientifically Proven Secrets from the "Love Lab" About What Women Really Want

Rules for Focused Success in a Distracted World

Developing Mental Agility and Resilience to Thrive in Uncertainty

16 min

4.3

The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People

Stephen R. Covey

Powerful Lessons in Personal Change

24 min

4.7

The Singularity Is Near

Ray Kurzweil

When Humans Transcend Biology

24 min

4.4

The Law of Attraction

Esther and Jerry Hicks

The Basics of the Teachings of Abraham

14 min

4.2

Love Your Life, Not Theirs

Rachel Cruze

7 Money Habits for Living the Life You Want

A Friendship That Changed Our Minds

Myths about genius and what it really means to be great

16 min

4.3

A Brief History of Everyone Who Ever Lived

Adam Rutherford

The Human Story Retold Through Our Genes

Escape 9–5, Live Anywhere, and Join the New Rich

A Flaw in Human Judgment

19 min

4.4

The Eight Master Lessons of Nature

Gary Ferguson

What Nature Teaches Us About Living Well in the World

A Guidebook to Intuitive Wellness

16 min

4.2

A Brief History of Time

Stephen Hawking

From the Big Bang to Black Holes

The Tactics, Routines and Habits of Billionaires, Icons and World-Class Performers

The Hidden Determinants of Human Behaviour

The Cultural History of this Mystical Animal

What you Thought Was a Diagnosis May Be Your Greatest Strength

11 min

3.2

Difficult Conversations

Douglas Stone

How to Discuss What Matters Most

14 min

4.1

Love Yourself Like Your Life Depends on It

Kamal Ravikant

How the Simple Act of Self-Love Can Transform Your Life

15 min

4.4

The Black Swan

Nassim Nicholas Taleb

The Impact of the Highly Improbable

18 min

4.4

The Life-Changing Power of Sophrology

Dominique Antiglio

Breathe and Connect with the Calm and Happy You

20 min

4.2

Can We Talk?

Roberta Chinsky Matuson

Seven Principles for Managing Difficult Conversations at Work

A Philosophical Tale About the Failures of Government Coercion

Future-Proof Your Career and Craft a Life Worthy of You

15 min

4.1

The Imperfectionists

Robert McLean and Charles Conn

Strategic Mindsets for Uncertain Times

Seven Ways to Unlock Your Heart and Manifest Happiness

25 min

4.5

Brief Answers to the Big Questions

Stephen Hawking

Hawking's final thoughts on the biggest questions facing humankind

Unlocking the Power of Emotions to Help Our Kids, Ourselves, and Our Society Thrive

What to Do When Your Get-Up-and-Go Has Got Up and Gone

25 min

4.3

❤️ für Blinkist️️️

Ines S.

Ich bin begeistert. Ich liebe Bücher aber durch zwei kleine Kinder komme ich einfach nicht zum Lesen. Und ja, viele Bücher haben viel bla bla und die Quintessenz ist eigentlich ein Bruchteil.

Genau dafür ist Blinkist total genial! Es wird auf das Wesentliche reduziert, die Blinks sind gut verständlich, gut zusammengefasst und auch hörbar! Das ist super. 80 Euro für ein ganzes Jahr klingt viel, aber dafür unbegrenzt Zugriff auf 3000 Bücher. Und dieses Wissen und die Zeitersparnis ist unbezahlbar.

Ekaterina S.

Extrem empfehlenswert. Statt sinnlos im Facebook zu scrollen höre ich jetzt täglich zwischen 3-4 "Bücher". Bei manchen wird schnelle klar, dass der Kauf unnötig ist, da schon das wichtigste zusammen gefasst wurde..bei anderen macht es Lust doch das Buch selbständig zu lesen. Wirklich toll

Nils S.

Einer der besten, bequemsten und sinnvollsten Apps die auf ein Handy gehören. Jeden morgen 15-20 Minuten für die eigene Weiterbildung/Entwicklung oder Wissen.

Julia P.

Viele tolle Bücher, auf deren Kernaussagen reduziert- präzise und ansprechend zusammengefasst. Endlich habe ich das Gefühl, Zeit für Bücher zu finden, für die ich sonst keine Zeit habe.