Other Minds - The Octopus, The Sea, and The Deep Origins of Consciousness

Other Minds is a 2016 book by the Australian philosopher Peter Godfrey-Smith on the evolution and nature of consciousness. I read this book because it is recommended by Yann LeCun, the ML/AI researcher. This book is a light read of evolutionary history and why the Octopus may have evolved its intelligence. This book is useful because it approaches an explanation of what intelligence “is”. Where most intelligent animals are vertebrates: Humans, Dogs, Birds, Dolphins, the Octopus is on the far side of the evolutionary tree, but is comparable to all of the above in terms of intelligence (except for humans). Where the vertibrates have a centralized brain, the Octopus decentralizes its thoughts, they literally have parts of their brain in their arms. Studying the Octopus is an opportunity to study the intelligence furthest from our own.