Just over five years ago, Inky the octopus became a folk hero because of
his escape from a New Zealand aquarium. After squeezing through a narrow
chink in his tank, he crawled across the floor and found an opening to a
164-foot-long drainpipe that led to the ocean. As much as I enjoyed the
film based on Stephen King’s “The Shawshank Redemption”, which climaxes
in Tim Robbin’s daring prison break, I only wish that a gifted animation
team like the one that made “How to Train Your Dragon” could tell Inky’s
story.
At the time, I made a mental note to myself to learn about octopuses.
From the time that I read about Inky, interest in the creatures has
increased dramatically with this year’s Oscar for documentary going to
“My Octopus Teacher.” Nearly everybody who spends time looking at
octopus YouTube videos, or going further and reading books about them,
will be struck by both their intelligence and inscrutability.
This article will discuss Sy Montgomery’s best-selling “The Soul of an
Octopus: A Surprising Exploration into the Wonder of Consciousness
<https://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1451697724/counterpunchmaga>”
and Peter Godfrey-Smith’s “Other Minds: The Octopus, the Sea, and the
Deep Origins of Consciousness
<https://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0374537194/counterpunchmaga>.”
It will also review “My Octopus Teacher.” Despite the inclusion of the
word “consciousness” in both titles, there are vast differences between
the two. Montgomery’s focus is on the interplay between humans and the
octopus taking place in aquariums just like the kind that Inky fled,
while Godfrey-Smith applies neuroscience and Darwinism to a creature
that seemingly defies what these disciplines hold as sacrosanct. In
either book, you’ll discover that both authors have the kind of love for
the octopus that other authors had for the chimpanzee or the wolf. I, of
course, am referring to Jane Goodall and Farley Mowat respectively.
full: https://louisproyect.org/2021/06/04/thinking-like-an-octopus/
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