The Soul of an Octopus: A Surprising Exploration in the Wonder of Consciousness
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Octopuses are dope. They’re super intelligent and their bodies are wild. Giant Pacific octopuses have three hearts, hundreds of really strong suckers, blue blood, and nine brains that are distributed throughout their whole bodies (so if one of their arms is cut off, the arm can still do creepy stuff). I mean what are these dudes up to for real??
That’s not all. They can change colors and textures to camouflage-- or just have fun, as many spunky, adventurous octopuses do. I feel like chameleons have unfairly cornered the market on color changing and octopuses aren’t getting their due. There are also some truly insane stories about them pranking other animals/employees at aquariums. They basically get bored and go wild.
I learned these things from Sy Montgomery’s bestseller The Soul of an Octopus: A Surprising Exploration in the Wonder of Consciousness. I think these facts are very interesting-- and I wish there had been more of them. I feel like I was sold a bill of goods. I thought that I was going to legitimately learn about how complex these creatures are, what their evolutionary history is, how their intelligence manifests itself, etc., but her “conclusion” about octopus consciousness leaves a lot to be desired. She threw around some information, but the book was wayyyy too subjective. Is it overly western of me to want more data? More facts, less feels.
Sy’s writing is heartfelt and accessible, but if you want something more academic, this is not the place to look. The Soul of an Octopus receives 2 out of 5 flames.
