What is a TALKING OCTOPUS?

The materials on this website reflect an attempt to clarify the concept of embodied, causally prior biological cognition, i.e. “epistolution,” such that it can be studied in detail in laboratories, and also to imagine what some of the societal consequences will be when we decipher this unknown mechanism. The arguments put forward in my essays suggest that epistolution is the source not only of morphology and organismic behavior but of intelligence, morality, sense of humor, and delightful artistic creativity. The “talking octopus” is what I imagine the first really impressive implementations of this principle to be; unlike todays algorithmic mimicry of intelligence, it will be the first creative, intelligent, moral machine on earth. It is a “talking octopus” because such a machine will be embodied, with moving arms and legs, eyes, ears, etc. and will require training like children. I imagine it will be a squishy, funny, goofy, smart little bionic octopus-kid with brilliant wacky ideas and lots of love for others.

BASIC IDEA

Current theories of cognition assume that life is a consequence of inherited biochemical programming (DNA, RNA, epigenetics, and cytoplasmic inheritance) shaped by natural selection. Two problems force us to conclude that the inherited propensities of life cannot be the cause of cognition – rather, they must be its effect. In other words, mind or cognition must come first, before orderly inheritance.

The first problem is that phenotypes (individual organisms) that survive and reproduce are not, by definition, directly affected by natural selection. Natural selection removes some individuals from a population but doesn’t physically change those that remain; therefore, whatever propensities they have must be explained in some other way. Second, many phenotypes (individual organisms) have been shown to re-order their inherited materials (genes, chromosomes, epigenetics), thereby changing their own behavior. Sometimes these re-orderings are transmitted to offspring. As a result, we propose replacing the genetic theory of life with a learning-first explanation, an “epistolutionary” theory of life.

DEFINING EPISTOLUTION

We propose that cognition arose not in complex brains but in the very first living cells and subsequently led to the inheritance of various materials that store information. We suggest that all living cells, like minds, are built entirely of (develop and maintain robust systems of acquisition, storage, modification, and retrieval of) memories, deployed selectively, appropriately, and in context for strictly cognitive functions

The current paradigm in biology uses a story involving inheritance, natural selection, and propensities to survive and reproduce as the explanation for why life behaves in a different way from non-life. This explanation is often considered to be free of teleology, the purpose or primal drive experienced by living creatures, the reason why they do what they do. This claim is false because this explanation is a teleology.  Karl Popper wrote, “teleology enters the world with adaptation.” We propose that fundamental progress in biology is blocked because this teleology is logically flawed, and should be replaced with a purely cognitive teleology. We claim that, rather than being biotic machines built for self-propagation, cells and all other living creatures pursue the entirely different aim of understanding the world from a subjective point of view. We assume that every living cell is part of a sentient, intelligent, agential self. 

To explain the origin of orderly inheritance, cognition must be a property of all cells that is derived from certain universal features, for example perhaps from an ability of ordered states of liquid crystal water and membranes to create and modify memories through interaction with their surroundings. We call this universal cognitive function “epistolution”,  combining epistemology, the branch of philosophy concerned with the ways by which and the reasons why we learn, with evolution. We suggest that experimental research should now focus on uncovering epistolution’s physical basis.

THE PRIMACY OF MEMORY 

We tentatively conjecture that the language in which memory is written into biotic systems is harmonic resonance. We propose that cells and organisms resonate within themselves and with their surroundings, forming cognitive explanations of the world. Since patterns of resonance are waves distributed throughout a resonant system, there is not a sharp distinction between parts and wholes in cognitive function.

We conceive of the entire phenotype (body) as a resonating substrate for memory (a mind.) Memories are often assumed to be instantiated in specific configurations of neurons, but when these brain configurations are damaged, memories can often be recovered. Instead, we propose that memory is a property of the harmonic resonance between all the components of all cells and their local environments or umwelten. Critically, these components include heritable materials. Some aspects of memory are transmissible through inheritance in the form of DNA, RNAs and cytoplasmic influences. Others are transmissible from phenotype to phenotype in the form of imprinting, communication, and learning. Memories are meme-ories, containing memes and genes utilized together for seamlessly unified purposes, but shared according to distinctly different rules of transmission. 

Epistolution theory aims to elucidate the interpretation and transmission of memory between cells and organisms. For instance, some memes and genes are composed of Shannon information, discretely coded templates that can be corrected for errors up to an arbitrarily high level of fidelity in transmission. DNA is this type of code, as is digital information transmitted in human societies. This form of information transfer has been well-studied, but much of the significant information necessary for life is not in this digital form, rather it exists in analog influences between living creatures and their surroundings or other living organisms. The rules for transmission of this second type of information, described as “a difference that makes a difference” by the writer Gregory Bateson, are still largely a mystery. Uncovering the physical basis of epistolution will explain how this type of information becomes meaningful in the context of a cell or organism’s struggle to understand its world.