Howtown
patreon
New video! with "Sentience" pronounced the American way (sorry, truly)
🕑 Added 2024-07-11 17:40:22 +0000 UTCHello to the friends of Howtown,
Joss here, writing to let you know that I've got a new feature up on our channel, "How do they know which animals are sentient?" [12:08]
I decided to tackle this topic after reading about a new UK law recognizing sentience in cephalopod mollusks (octopus, squid, cuttlefish) and decapod crustaceans (crabs, lobsters, shrimp). It sent me on a deep dive into the emerging science of invertebrate sentience.
Full disclosure: I have always believed as a matter of faith that these animals have feelings, but in this video we show how difficult it is to test or prove that claim. It's a fascinating area of research with some real ethical stakes. A Spanish company has announced plans for the world's first octopus farm, so there's an active debate about what it would require to humanely house and slaughter those solitary and apparently sentient creatures.
For our $8 members and up, we have a bonus video about insect sentience available now in our Patreon feed:
Meanwhile on Shorts:
Howtown is a little over a month old now, bobbing happily on a small raft in the stormy ocean of the YouTube algorithm. The most rewarding part so far has been connecting directly with you over here, so thank you again for signing up to hear about our work and to those of you who have invested in our project with memberships - it's incredibly grounding and keeps us focused on our mission.
Back in two weeks with a new one from Adam!
-Joss
Comments
Joss
it's definitely hard to rule out anything when we don't have a proper understanding of what structures are required for sentience, but worth checking out this study that tracks the signals going to the central brain: https://www.cell.com/iscience/fulltext/S2589-0042(21)00197-8?_returnURL=https%3A%2F%2Flinkinghub.elsevier.com%2Fretrieve%2Fpii%2FS2589004221001978%3Fshowall%3Dtrue
David Weintraub
It’s possible that the disconnected arm of the octopus is sentient. Octopus have 2/3rds of their neurons located in their arms. The arms can communicate with each other without relaying information back to the brain. The arms can move on their own and make their own decisions. Like most mollusks, their nervous system can be better thought of as a network rather than a central highway to the brain. It is possible that the arms of an octopus arms contain enough intelligence to be sentient.
@DaveRizz
Loved this episode! I'd like to say "Sentiences" is the reason I don't eat octopus/calamari, esp after seeing My Octopus Teacher... but really, I just never grew up eating sea food, and never developed a taste for it. lol But on a serious note, episode was great. Concept/Topic, to Production/Aesthetic; top-notch and interesting. And I was totally drawn to the transition at 2:13. The move from those fun family tree motion graphics to Adam popping up, and then clicking into full frame. The amount of work, for that 2 second transition and story progression... that looks and feels fun. Love it.
