Books: Other minds, Upside of Unrequited
Apr. 21st, 2017 04:56 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
the_emuOther Minds: The octopus and the evolution of early life
Peter Godfrey-Smith
(Science/Philosophy)
This was Fucking Epic.
Godfrey-Smith combines two of the most awesome things in existence: cephalopods, and neurology. He takes the coolest octopus and cuttlefish and squid stories ever and pulls them together to explain the evolution of bodies, and the evolution of our minds, and theory of mind (what does it mean to be self-aware?). And my mind was blown, all the way through.
Starting with this: have you ever realised that intelligence has evolved *twice* on this planet? We know that chimps and dogs and dolphins are all pretty smart, but we all came up the same branch of the evolutionary tree, from the same evolving brains, and some species developed fancier thinking than others. And some birds are startlingly intelligent, though we split with their lineage much further back, but still, our last common ancestor was some kind of lizardy dinosaury thing, that at least had a primitive brain that helped it figure shit out to hunt or scavenge or something.
But have you ever thought about the fact that our last common ancestor with octopuses - crafty, clever, curious octopuses - was 600 million years ago, in the sea, some kind of blob with the barest beginning of a nervous system? Maybe it had two clumps of cells that could detect light. Maybe it had the means to propel itself along the sea floor like a slug. From that humble beginning, on two completely different family lines, two very different nervous systems evolved, and built complex (but different) brains. Octopuses are quite legitimately an alien intelligence. If you didn't just say 'Whoa!' out loud, then I'm afraid I just don't know how to help you.
One key difference is that while we have nerves throughout our body, ours are pretty solidly clumped in a ball in our skulls, and we do 99.99% of our thinking in there. Octopus nerves are more diffuse. They're kind of thinking with their whole bodies, and there's some evidence that their tentacles act partly independently.
But I'll come back to evolution. Most of you have probably heard the stories of octopuses dodging security guards while escaping their aquarium tanks to go snack in other tanks. Godfrey-Smith is all jaded and "Meh," about that, because his octopus stories are so much fucking cooler. He's all, "How about the way octopuses figured out that they could short-circuit the power and get some nice darkness by squirting water at light switches?" and "Did you know octopuses can recognise specific people, and be rude to them?" or "How about these octopuses who carry around coconut shells under their arms and reassemble them to hide inside?" and "Let me tell you about me coming to an understanding with a scary cuttlefish who chased me."
But never mind all that. He tells us about a scuba-diving friend who found a community of octopuses (very rare - they usually live independently) which he dubbed Octopolis. He spent a lot of time observing and interacting with them in their octopus village, and one day, an octopus took him by the hand, and led him on a ten-minute stroll around and back to its den.
A stroll!!
Look, I love you guys, but I would murder any one of you in exchange for an octopus taking me for a walk.
But back to the evolution of our minds.
Unless they're an argumentative philosophy wanker, everyone agrees that we're conscious. Where does consciousness 'begin'? Is it when you can ponder the meaning of your existence? Is it when you grasp the concept that other beings have their own view of the world? Is it when you experience pain? How does it 'feel' to be an octopus?
Even single-celled organisms sense the world and react to it. Bacteria can sense if they're moving toward or away from food. They can sense what other bacteria have excreted, which means they can sense each other. It was likely cells that failed to divide properly that were the beginnings of multi-cellular life. From there, the communication between cells became communication within bodies. In the Ediacaran period, 635 to 542 million years ago, current thinking is that life just kind of floated and crawled around the ocean, peacefully grazing. Then came the Cambrian explosion, when things started eating each other, which became a biological arms race of ways for creatures to eat each other and defend themselves, which means, not coincidentally, the first shells and such, which is why this is where the fossil record exploded. Eyes went from vague light-sensing cells to really actually seeing prey and predators, while those prey and predators evolved to keep up. This was the beginning of minds evolving in response to other minds - and it was so useful, it happened on two separate branches of the evolutionary tree.
Even though we are two independent lines of evolution, we both developed very similar eyes, the same kind of ability to problem-solve, a distinction between short-term and long-term memory. We both play, and we both sleep - cuttlefish even seem to have REM sleep.
Godfrey-Smith takes a good look at the cuttlefish, the LED display of the camouflage world. These guys can ripple colours through their skin like Times Square or perfectly match their background in an instant, and we still don't fully understand how they do it, oh and also by the way they're colour blind. Wait, what?
He makes you love all these little guys, and then stabs you in the heart as he muses on their deaths in a fascinating chapter on aging, and why different species evolved different genetically in-built expiry dates.
Science books can be intimidating because you never know when you're going to get slabs of information like a high school cram for exams. This is nothing like that. It is so charming that you will spend the next week watching videos and considering learning how to scuba dive and telling people cool octopus stories. By focusing on just a couple of specific things, it paints early evolution better than anything else I've read.
Bonus fact: all the most complex creatures in the world are bilateral: ie. their bodies have a mirrored left and right. Like us, and octopuses, and snails, with an eye each side of our head. The box jellyfish, which you may know as an invisible floating blob that is one of the most deadly venomous creatures on earth (and of course they hang around Australia) are by far the smartest non-bilateral we know of, and can navigate by landmarks on the goddamn shore. By which I mean to tell you, they're coming for you.
To comfort you in the meantime, here's a video of an octopus carrying around a coconut shell.
The Upside of Unrequited
Becky Albertalli
(Youth Fiction)
Where is Judy Blume these days? Right here, I tell you. This is so Judy Blume.
Molly has two moms, a more-confident twin sister, a love of Pinterest, and a new job at a store full of pretty stuff.
Everyone else seems so comfortable in their skin, and their cool clothes, talking about bikini waxes and sex stuff, like they all figured out how to grow up while she was off in the bathroom or something. Molly has crushes all the time, thinks constantly about kissing or being with someone, even if it gives her feminist guilt, but she's awkward and overweight and hasn't figured out how to be cool like everyone else, so she hasn't even spoken to most of her crushes. Now her twin has a girlfriend, and Molly fears being left behind.
So many lovely little details: girls who think and talk about sex (though Albertalli pulls it off without being explicit about the deeds), the guilty worry that people might judge you if you date someone who isn't cool, the niggling concern that the person who made it totally clear last night that he was into you might be totally over it today, straight guys arguing with gay girls about the definition of losing virginity, a subtle assumption of gender fluidity which nails where the teens I know are at right now, girls using the term 'vag-blocking'. There are no wild twists, just the ongoing inner angst of growing up.
There is one spectacular WTF, which is a room of 17yo girls all wondering what orgasms feel like, in which the assumption is that orgasms can only come from sex with a partner. Huh? None of these girls have figured out how to take care of themselves? None of them have heard that most women do? And they think another 17yo will do it for them? That bit was weird. But just that bit.
This is the second book from Albertalli. Her first was the marvellous Simon vs the Homo Sapiens Experience, so I'm calling her a must-read.
Peter Godfrey-Smith
(Science/Philosophy)
This was Fucking Epic.
Godfrey-Smith combines two of the most awesome things in existence: cephalopods, and neurology. He takes the coolest octopus and cuttlefish and squid stories ever and pulls them together to explain the evolution of bodies, and the evolution of our minds, and theory of mind (what does it mean to be self-aware?). And my mind was blown, all the way through.
Starting with this: have you ever realised that intelligence has evolved *twice* on this planet? We know that chimps and dogs and dolphins are all pretty smart, but we all came up the same branch of the evolutionary tree, from the same evolving brains, and some species developed fancier thinking than others. And some birds are startlingly intelligent, though we split with their lineage much further back, but still, our last common ancestor was some kind of lizardy dinosaury thing, that at least had a primitive brain that helped it figure shit out to hunt or scavenge or something.
But have you ever thought about the fact that our last common ancestor with octopuses - crafty, clever, curious octopuses - was 600 million years ago, in the sea, some kind of blob with the barest beginning of a nervous system? Maybe it had two clumps of cells that could detect light. Maybe it had the means to propel itself along the sea floor like a slug. From that humble beginning, on two completely different family lines, two very different nervous systems evolved, and built complex (but different) brains. Octopuses are quite legitimately an alien intelligence. If you didn't just say 'Whoa!' out loud, then I'm afraid I just don't know how to help you.
One key difference is that while we have nerves throughout our body, ours are pretty solidly clumped in a ball in our skulls, and we do 99.99% of our thinking in there. Octopus nerves are more diffuse. They're kind of thinking with their whole bodies, and there's some evidence that their tentacles act partly independently.
But I'll come back to evolution. Most of you have probably heard the stories of octopuses dodging security guards while escaping their aquarium tanks to go snack in other tanks. Godfrey-Smith is all jaded and "Meh," about that, because his octopus stories are so much fucking cooler. He's all, "How about the way octopuses figured out that they could short-circuit the power and get some nice darkness by squirting water at light switches?" and "Did you know octopuses can recognise specific people, and be rude to them?" or "How about these octopuses who carry around coconut shells under their arms and reassemble them to hide inside?" and "Let me tell you about me coming to an understanding with a scary cuttlefish who chased me."
But never mind all that. He tells us about a scuba-diving friend who found a community of octopuses (very rare - they usually live independently) which he dubbed Octopolis. He spent a lot of time observing and interacting with them in their octopus village, and one day, an octopus took him by the hand, and led him on a ten-minute stroll around and back to its den.
A stroll!!
Look, I love you guys, but I would murder any one of you in exchange for an octopus taking me for a walk.
But back to the evolution of our minds.
Unless they're an argumentative philosophy wanker, everyone agrees that we're conscious. Where does consciousness 'begin'? Is it when you can ponder the meaning of your existence? Is it when you grasp the concept that other beings have their own view of the world? Is it when you experience pain? How does it 'feel' to be an octopus?
Even single-celled organisms sense the world and react to it. Bacteria can sense if they're moving toward or away from food. They can sense what other bacteria have excreted, which means they can sense each other. It was likely cells that failed to divide properly that were the beginnings of multi-cellular life. From there, the communication between cells became communication within bodies. In the Ediacaran period, 635 to 542 million years ago, current thinking is that life just kind of floated and crawled around the ocean, peacefully grazing. Then came the Cambrian explosion, when things started eating each other, which became a biological arms race of ways for creatures to eat each other and defend themselves, which means, not coincidentally, the first shells and such, which is why this is where the fossil record exploded. Eyes went from vague light-sensing cells to really actually seeing prey and predators, while those prey and predators evolved to keep up. This was the beginning of minds evolving in response to other minds - and it was so useful, it happened on two separate branches of the evolutionary tree.
Even though we are two independent lines of evolution, we both developed very similar eyes, the same kind of ability to problem-solve, a distinction between short-term and long-term memory. We both play, and we both sleep - cuttlefish even seem to have REM sleep.
Godfrey-Smith takes a good look at the cuttlefish, the LED display of the camouflage world. These guys can ripple colours through their skin like Times Square or perfectly match their background in an instant, and we still don't fully understand how they do it, oh and also by the way they're colour blind. Wait, what?
He makes you love all these little guys, and then stabs you in the heart as he muses on their deaths in a fascinating chapter on aging, and why different species evolved different genetically in-built expiry dates.
Science books can be intimidating because you never know when you're going to get slabs of information like a high school cram for exams. This is nothing like that. It is so charming that you will spend the next week watching videos and considering learning how to scuba dive and telling people cool octopus stories. By focusing on just a couple of specific things, it paints early evolution better than anything else I've read.
Bonus fact: all the most complex creatures in the world are bilateral: ie. their bodies have a mirrored left and right. Like us, and octopuses, and snails, with an eye each side of our head. The box jellyfish, which you may know as an invisible floating blob that is one of the most deadly venomous creatures on earth (and of course they hang around Australia) are by far the smartest non-bilateral we know of, and can navigate by landmarks on the goddamn shore. By which I mean to tell you, they're coming for you.
To comfort you in the meantime, here's a video of an octopus carrying around a coconut shell.
The Upside of Unrequited
Becky Albertalli
(Youth Fiction)
Where is Judy Blume these days? Right here, I tell you. This is so Judy Blume.
Molly has two moms, a more-confident twin sister, a love of Pinterest, and a new job at a store full of pretty stuff.
Everyone else seems so comfortable in their skin, and their cool clothes, talking about bikini waxes and sex stuff, like they all figured out how to grow up while she was off in the bathroom or something. Molly has crushes all the time, thinks constantly about kissing or being with someone, even if it gives her feminist guilt, but she's awkward and overweight and hasn't figured out how to be cool like everyone else, so she hasn't even spoken to most of her crushes. Now her twin has a girlfriend, and Molly fears being left behind.
So many lovely little details: girls who think and talk about sex (though Albertalli pulls it off without being explicit about the deeds), the guilty worry that people might judge you if you date someone who isn't cool, the niggling concern that the person who made it totally clear last night that he was into you might be totally over it today, straight guys arguing with gay girls about the definition of losing virginity, a subtle assumption of gender fluidity which nails where the teens I know are at right now, girls using the term 'vag-blocking'. There are no wild twists, just the ongoing inner angst of growing up.
There is one spectacular WTF, which is a room of 17yo girls all wondering what orgasms feel like, in which the assumption is that orgasms can only come from sex with a partner. Huh? None of these girls have figured out how to take care of themselves? None of them have heard that most women do? And they think another 17yo will do it for them? That bit was weird. But just that bit.
This is the second book from Albertalli. Her first was the marvellous Simon vs the Homo Sapiens Experience, so I'm calling her a must-read.
no subject
Date: 2017-04-22 01:45 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2017-04-22 02:10 am (UTC)I highly recommend both, but Other Minds I just want to buy in bulk and shove into people's hands.
I liked Albertalli's first book even more. She's a child psychologist by trade, which explains why she writes them so well.
E.