One of the ongoing questions in my Evolution course is what makes us… human? In my course, we debate things like fingernails and inner ear bones, tool use, cooking, and other physical and behavioural traits. We often tend to try to define humans in other, more metaphysical qualities: self-awareness (consciousness) and ensoulment.
The problem is that so few of these traits actually appear to be uniquely human, and I don’t think any of them are universally agreed-upon. Tool use is certainly widespread, and encompasses everything from simple tool use (using a stick to collect ants from an anthill or log) to more sophisticated tool use, such as the crow bending the wire to form a hook. Dolphins will break off bits of sponge to protect their rostrums–using them as tools while they forage for food (special thanks to Brittney Josey for that!) Planning? Many animals secret away food for winter months (which is more than I manage to do). Modifying their environments? Sure. Countless animals build and defend nests. Emotional? Does a spitting mad wet cat not adequately convey emotion? Memory? That’s not fair, either; memory is needed for learning–and many animals are capable of learning new behaviors. Me, on the other hand, I still haven’t learned where to keep my keys…
I came across this article today through Scientific American, which argues that octopuses show evidence of being self-aware as well. To me, that is totally unsuprising–I have no trouble believing that many animals are self-aware, at least in some capacity. I would argue that it is improbable that an organism could be aware of its environment but not aware of self; to perceive one seems to imply a perceptual differentiation between “self” and “nonself.”
In evolutionary terms, we’re generally forced to ask ourselves the question “how does this improve fitness?” That’s a pretty easy one. If you can differentiate your self from your environment, you can modify your environment in ways that are likely to improve your fitness. This is a clearly beneficial trait. You can perceive danger, food, injury.
I found two things about this article to be particularly notable. First, this is the first invertebrate to be recognised as having potential self-awareness; and second–that it took so long for this to happen! The author of this article on Scientific American notes that “That does not necessarily mean that you could have a distraught octopus or an elated cuttlefish on your hands.” I’m not so sure about that; they exhibit curiosity in exploring new toys and puzzles, and they become… irritable… if thwarted in their intentions to rearrange their environments, find mates, or In addition, octopuses show evidence of tool use and learning through observation. There are multiple reports of octopuses figuring out how to open their tanks, escape, and travel to OTHER tanks to hunt for food–even closing the “food tank” when done and before returning to their own. I wish I could share a video of that one with you–but I’ve only been able to find a trailer of the show I caught on TV a while back: