Other Minds: The Octopus, the Sea, and the Deep Origins of Consciousness

Philosopher and scuba diver, Godfrey-Smith traces the evolution of mind by looking at the cephalopod — an animal that invented complex cognition independently from vertebrates roughly 600 million years ago. The octopus has a nervous system organised nothing like ours, yet displays behaviour that demands explanation in terms of experience and awareness. This makes it the best natural experiment for understanding what consciousness requires and what it does not. The book is beautifully written, moving between underwater observation and philosophical argument without ever losing rigour. It challenges the vertebrate-centric assumptions that dominate both cognitive science and AI. Read alongside Metazoa for the broader evolutionary picture.