But I expected - in fact, was promised as per the second part of the title - an exploration into the wonder of consciousness related to octopuses (as was provided in the Mind of the Raven by Bernd Heinrich). She’s a fine writer with clear knowledge related to the octopus, and obviously enamored with them.
That doesn’t make it bad, but by the end I felt I knew far more about the souls of the people visiting the octopuses than the actual octopuses.
There was some science and behavioral issues, lots of travelogue style vignettes at the local aquarium and some dives into octopus habitat, and ruminations on how her life and the lives of a variety of characters that crossed her path were enriched by knowing several octopuses at the aquarium.
I was expecting more cognitive science - using the octopus as a springboard to examine what consciousness is, even, and how it works in cephalopods and humans. Perhaps those high expectations unfairly colored the experience, but I was disappointed. That’s why, on a recent vacation to Molokai, I was particularly excited to read The Soul of an Octopus: A Surprising Exploration into the Wonder of Consciousness by Sy Montgomery. Octopuses aren’t just awesome, they are truly special - magical even ¬- possessing a sense of self awareness, and perhaps even playfulness, that puts them right up there with ravens in terms of science-befuddling consciousness. Lovecraft.īut with age came a deeper understanding of how truly remarkable cephalopods really are: eight arms that can function independently (for context, consider a human using each arm for different tasks simultaneously … times four), sentient chameleon skin that gives them insane camouflage skills, shape-shifting abilities that let them squeeze a ten pound body through a key hole, suckers strong enough to open jars, brains that understand tool use and a maternal instinct so strong, it is basically self-defeating (but species saving). Blame it on a misspent youth reading about the misadventures of Doc Ock in Spiderman compounded by the delicious, existential terror of the tentacle-armed elder god Cthulu, courtesy of H.P. I’ve always thought of octopuses as kind of awesome. Light on consciousness, and octopus souls
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