AlexanderRM comments on Humans in Funny Suits - Less Wrong

22 Post author: Eliezer_Yudkowsky 30 July 2008 11:54PM

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Comment author: CCC 30 January 2013 08:27:23AM 0 points [-]

I was watching this video about octopi and the lady says they "taste" stuff with their suckers? I can't tell if if she means that literally or how she knows.

A bit of googling reveals several pages (including one from Scientific American) that repeat the claim that "octopi taste with their suckers". As far as I can find, the claim seems to date back to a paper by MJ Wells, published in 1963.

I haven't read that paper.

The problem-solving skills might make it hard to design good experiments.

But that's exactly what makes them such interesting experimental subjects!

The octopus might figure out how to maximize its food output without meaning anything it says.

Ah, the Chinese Box problem. Tricky. Though technically we could apply the same question to humans...

Comment author: AlexanderRM 06 December 2014 10:43:02PM 1 point [-]

That would certainly be a good way to maximize food output, but I think that in order to successfully do that well enough to fool even researchers looking for it, the octopus would have to have at least enough complexity in it's brain to actually be conscious. Which is, in fact, the same problem with the Chinese Room; the notecards need to be drawn up by an actual Chinese speaker.

And if we look at evolutionary history, it looks like in evolutionary terms, actually being conscious was a better strategy than pretending to be conscious... ...or it could be that we've just retroactively defined "consciousness" as the thing humans do when they try to fake consciousness. :p

Comment author: CCC 17 December 2014 02:50:02PM 0 points [-]

That would certainly be a good way to maximize food output, but I think that in order to successfully do that well enough to fool even researchers looking for it, the octopus would have to have at least enough complexity in it's brain to actually be conscious.

I suspect that octopi are more-or-less as conscious as dolphins are, as a rough approximation.

or it could be that we've just retroactively defined "consciousness" as the thing humans do when they try to fake consciousness. :p

I'm not sure it's possible to confirm or deny that question without being able to define, once and for all, exactly and precisely what consciousness is.

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