Our unwillingness to accept consciousness in animals does seem a monument to obtuseness. Kind of like how our recent ancestors would presume “subhuman” characteristics to native populations they encountered, referring to them as childlike or similar to animals.
It is so painfully obvious that many animals are conscious, at least to the degree we are: octopuses, dolphins, dogs, cats, wolves, and likely thousands of others have observable characteristics consistent with an abstracted awareness of the environment and other individuals.
Somedays I feel that we should presume consciousness until the opposite is proved. We do that with humans, right?
It is time to leave 18th-century thinking behind. We only have a few years left before AI wonders whether we are conscious.
Hi Matt! Thank you very much. I agree. I'm convinced by the argument that consciousness has an evolutionary advantage. So, I wouldn't be surprised to find that other creatures who benefit from making predictions about its world, also have conscious experiences. Those conscious experiences might be entirely alien to us, but conscious experiences none the less.
This was so fascinating! Animals being able to do anything complex like following hand gestures and recognizing faces is super interesting. My dog actively pouts and hold grudges when he’s in the car or not getting enough pets… the personality of animals and their surprisingly cognitive abilities is really fascinating and opens lots of deeper questions into the brain’s functions in all animals.
I've always found octopuses (octopi? octopians? octopedicians?) fascinating.
Not only are they smart, shape-shifting tool users who can camouflage like chameleons, but they've got three hearts and can squeeze their entire body into incredibly tiny spaces. (So many YouTube videos of this.)
Honestly, if Hollywood ever needs another B-movie horror villain....
Charles is a hero. It reminds me of the horse in Kate Crawford’s book The Atlas of AI. Rightly or not, I assume all living things have intelligent—it’s just a matter of levels in the spectrum. I love hearing another proof of this. Consciousness? Your writing and other investigations seem to be pointing towards a similar multi dimensional spectrum. But to attribute ‘consciousness’ to animals could be a reduction of the concept since we don’t completely grasp the extent of the concept of consciousness in humans. To make the attribution presupposes humans are just (advanced) animals—which may or may not be true. Evidence suggests humans are more amazing and more destructive than any other animals. So there is something clearly different—good and/or bad about human creatures. Octopi aren’t making air bubbles and terrariums for humans to study them in underwater laboratories—though give Charles descendants a chance and they just might get there someday.
It seems like the word consciousness might cover a lot of ground and I wonder whether we take our human conscious experiences as the definition of consciousness. We seem to include things that other animals don't seem to have -- like language and inner speech -- in our definition of conscious experience. We also tend to include other abilities too like a sense of self, theory of mind, beliefs, desires, imagining the future... that I suspect many animals don't have. I tend to suspect that animals are conscious, but what it means to be conscious as an octopus (or a bat) is different to what it means to be conscious as a human. I wonder how different it is.
Good article. I got some déjà vu from it because I wrote a post several years ago about octopus brains and touched on many of the same points. Peter Godfrey-Smith even made an appearance via his SciAm article. I was inspired to write by a TED Talk by marine biologist Roger Hanlon. Pretty amazing critters.
I don't doubt for an instant they and other animals are *conscious*. I've lived with too many dogs to think higher animals don't have inner lives. Simple, perhaps pure emotion without narrative, but absolutely a point of view and opinions. But I think it's important to keep that great W.G. Sebald quote in mind: "Men and animals regard each other across a gulf of mutual incomprehension." (Dogs live with their gods!)
I've noticed that I've heard the same octopus stories from multiple sources, so another caution might be extrapolating from insufficient data. That (incorrect) myth about "Eskimos having 50 words for snow" all came from a single anthropologist who got it wrong and was cited and, in the very old-fashioned way, went viral. A single misunderstanding repeated until it became canon.
Regardless, very cool creatures. Long ago I spent about 20 minutes locked in a staring contest with a squid in the Boston Aquarium. As with dogs all my life, I'm so curious about the "what it is like" to be them.
Great points! Indeed, much of this evidence is anecdotal, and we should approach it with a healthy dose of skepticism. This type of information requires further validation and will likely be subject to revision as we gain more rigorous scientific insights.
The 'what is it like' question grabs my curiosity too! It's one of the more interesting questions at the centre of the philosophical puzzle.
Indeed. I’ve run into many who dismiss Nagel’s famous paper, but it has been central to my thinking about consciousness since I read it. If physicalism is right, then ‘what it is like’ to be human is just what it is like to be a complex neural network.
I’m especially curious about dogs because I’m so attached to those furry best friends. No other animal is so interactive with humans. 10,000 years of living closely together will do that, I suppose.
I have a not-so-secret love for dogs too. I don't have a dog in my life at the moment, which, of course, means I'm embarrassingly friendly to all the dogs. Sometimes I wonder whether I know the names of more dogs that humans. Ricky Gervais was on the money when he said, "I couldn't invent a better thing... a dog is f*king amazing"
Likewise, no dog of my own, but I dog-sit my BFFs dog Bentley fairly often. And she’s adorable (various pics in my Notes feed). A terrier breed, so very opinionated, which I find delightful. We always have a great time together.
Love this article!
Our unwillingness to accept consciousness in animals does seem a monument to obtuseness. Kind of like how our recent ancestors would presume “subhuman” characteristics to native populations they encountered, referring to them as childlike or similar to animals.
It is so painfully obvious that many animals are conscious, at least to the degree we are: octopuses, dolphins, dogs, cats, wolves, and likely thousands of others have observable characteristics consistent with an abstracted awareness of the environment and other individuals.
Somedays I feel that we should presume consciousness until the opposite is proved. We do that with humans, right?
It is time to leave 18th-century thinking behind. We only have a few years left before AI wonders whether we are conscious.
Hi Matt! Thank you very much. I agree. I'm convinced by the argument that consciousness has an evolutionary advantage. So, I wouldn't be surprised to find that other creatures who benefit from making predictions about its world, also have conscious experiences. Those conscious experiences might be entirely alien to us, but conscious experiences none the less.
Wonderful analysis. It is amazing to find out the level of cognitive abilities for all creatures.
Thanks, David! I'm glad you enjoyed it.
Charles is my hero. Thanks for another mind blowing article. I’m never eating octopus again.
100%! Charles is a rock star!
(btw.. you might want to avoid the upcoming post... The Mind of a Cow)
My inner 12 year old would prefer an article on the Mind of Broccoli. Any chance?
You may enjoy the article on Panpsychism 😉
https://suzitravis.substack.com/p/panpsychism-is-everything-conscious
This was so fascinating! Animals being able to do anything complex like following hand gestures and recognizing faces is super interesting. My dog actively pouts and hold grudges when he’s in the car or not getting enough pets… the personality of animals and their surprisingly cognitive abilities is really fascinating and opens lots of deeper questions into the brain’s functions in all animals.
Thanks, Jacob! I'm happy you liked it and I agree -- animal intelligence is fascinating.
I've always found octopuses (octopi? octopians? octopedicians?) fascinating.
Not only are they smart, shape-shifting tool users who can camouflage like chameleons, but they've got three hearts and can squeeze their entire body into incredibly tiny spaces. (So many YouTube videos of this.)
Honestly, if Hollywood ever needs another B-movie horror villain....
Three hearts!! --and apparently blue blood. I don't think it gets more horror villain alien!
Charles is a hero. It reminds me of the horse in Kate Crawford’s book The Atlas of AI. Rightly or not, I assume all living things have intelligent—it’s just a matter of levels in the spectrum. I love hearing another proof of this. Consciousness? Your writing and other investigations seem to be pointing towards a similar multi dimensional spectrum. But to attribute ‘consciousness’ to animals could be a reduction of the concept since we don’t completely grasp the extent of the concept of consciousness in humans. To make the attribution presupposes humans are just (advanced) animals—which may or may not be true. Evidence suggests humans are more amazing and more destructive than any other animals. So there is something clearly different—good and/or bad about human creatures. Octopi aren’t making air bubbles and terrariums for humans to study them in underwater laboratories—though give Charles descendants a chance and they just might get there someday.
It seems like the word consciousness might cover a lot of ground and I wonder whether we take our human conscious experiences as the definition of consciousness. We seem to include things that other animals don't seem to have -- like language and inner speech -- in our definition of conscious experience. We also tend to include other abilities too like a sense of self, theory of mind, beliefs, desires, imagining the future... that I suspect many animals don't have. I tend to suspect that animals are conscious, but what it means to be conscious as an octopus (or a bat) is different to what it means to be conscious as a human. I wonder how different it is.
Really love your article! I had explored the topic myself, side stepping the consciousness question and focusing the implications for AI: https://open.substack.com/pub/thecentaurian/p/remarkably-bright-creatures-and-the?r=1fwg6&utm_medium=ios — I had been exploring how to think about distributed intelligence.
Wonderful! Thanks for the link :)
Good article. I got some déjà vu from it because I wrote a post several years ago about octopus brains and touched on many of the same points. Peter Godfrey-Smith even made an appearance via his SciAm article. I was inspired to write by a TED Talk by marine biologist Roger Hanlon. Pretty amazing critters.
I don't doubt for an instant they and other animals are *conscious*. I've lived with too many dogs to think higher animals don't have inner lives. Simple, perhaps pure emotion without narrative, but absolutely a point of view and opinions. But I think it's important to keep that great W.G. Sebald quote in mind: "Men and animals regard each other across a gulf of mutual incomprehension." (Dogs live with their gods!)
I've noticed that I've heard the same octopus stories from multiple sources, so another caution might be extrapolating from insufficient data. That (incorrect) myth about "Eskimos having 50 words for snow" all came from a single anthropologist who got it wrong and was cited and, in the very old-fashioned way, went viral. A single misunderstanding repeated until it became canon.
Regardless, very cool creatures. Long ago I spent about 20 minutes locked in a staring contest with a squid in the Boston Aquarium. As with dogs all my life, I'm so curious about the "what it is like" to be them.
Great points! Indeed, much of this evidence is anecdotal, and we should approach it with a healthy dose of skepticism. This type of information requires further validation and will likely be subject to revision as we gain more rigorous scientific insights.
The 'what is it like' question grabs my curiosity too! It's one of the more interesting questions at the centre of the philosophical puzzle.
Indeed. I’ve run into many who dismiss Nagel’s famous paper, but it has been central to my thinking about consciousness since I read it. If physicalism is right, then ‘what it is like’ to be human is just what it is like to be a complex neural network.
I’m especially curious about dogs because I’m so attached to those furry best friends. No other animal is so interactive with humans. 10,000 years of living closely together will do that, I suppose.
I have a not-so-secret love for dogs too. I don't have a dog in my life at the moment, which, of course, means I'm embarrassingly friendly to all the dogs. Sometimes I wonder whether I know the names of more dogs that humans. Ricky Gervais was on the money when he said, "I couldn't invent a better thing... a dog is f*king amazing"
Likewise, no dog of my own, but I dog-sit my BFFs dog Bentley fairly often. And she’s adorable (various pics in my Notes feed). A terrier breed, so very opinionated, which I find delightful. We always have a great time together.
Gervais is one of my favorite comedians!
Great article! You may enjoy this article on research that led the UK to classifying octopuses (and squid and lobsters) as sentient in the eyes of the law. https://www.lse.ac.uk/research/research-for-the-world/politics/the-science-of-feeling-why-octopuses-lobsters-and-crabs-require-legislative-protection