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Somehow I find it harder to imagine what it “would be like” to be even simpler creatures. As a crab I can kind of imagine having more legs and probably having a

Somehow I find it harder to imagine what it “would be like” to be even simpler creatures. As a crab I can kind of imagine having more legs and probably having a great sense of smell. I can imagine the excitement and urgency of spawning. How it would feel to think that a sea floor carcass would be tasty. In the other hand, what the hell would it feel like to be a worm? Would I have an inherent sense of “left” and “right” since I’m just a tube? What would being cut in half and becoming two separate organisms feel like? Sensing vibrations with no ear drums? Do I have a “plan” or are my actions more passive responses?

Etheryte 3y ago
And most important of all, would she still love you if you were a worm?
- Justsignedup 3y ago
  There's a story about a man who woke up as a dung bettle...
  - mongol 3y ago
    The Metamorphosis? Yeah, a pretty sad story to say the least
    - anjel 3y ago
      We've all been there at some point in one way or another
- akomtu 3y ago
  If she was a crab, she certainly would.
tablarasa 3y ago
It is sometimes surprising to learn which organisms are more or less like us. Annelid worms like the ones you likely find in the soils where you live do have brains, for example, albeit ones with different characteristics than those of crustaceans or mammals [1]. They don’t have lungs though sometimes gills. Are they more like crabs or humans? Tough to say but fun to ponder. Incidentally, of the marine invertebrates, the ones we are most closely related to are tunicates and salps, which are blobs that filter feed [2]. Who said cladistics wasn’t cool? Imagine all the ways we can’t imagine how other organisms experience their existence. But as you learn more about their biology it’s incredible how much we share. 1. https://frontiersinzoology.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12983-019-0305-1 https://frontiersinzoology.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.118... 2. https://ocean.si.edu/ocean-life/invertebrates/tunicates-not-so-spineless-invertebrates https://ocean.si.edu/ocean-life/invertebrates/tunicates-not-...
logtempo 3y ago
The book "the tree of possibilities" wrote by Bernard Werber, contains twenty "philosophy-fiction" stories. One of them is about a scientist who want to "free" its brain from its body, so he put his brain in a jar, and just...think. I think it kind of relate to your comment. It's a good reading (an other story is the left hand of one guy taking control and starting to act as a human).
- johngossman 3y ago
  That sounds amazing. Did you read it in English? I can only find it in French and Korean.
  - logtempo 3y ago
    I've read it in French, looks like it have never been translated in English. They are quite short novels, so maybe automatic traduction can work.
jemmyw 3y ago
Most worms don't actually become separate organisms when cut in half, it's just a myth based on their reaction. They usually just die after while.
- bavell 3y ago
  The only ones that I know of which do so are Planarians [0] [0] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Planarian https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Planarian
lgkk 3y ago
Interesting. How would it feel to know you’re just a battery?
- timeagain 3y ago
  Well you’re just a battery and you don’t seem to mind!
lo_zamoyski 3y ago
Well, we can imagine all sorts of things which have nothing to do with how things actually are. It gets us into problems all the time. The trouble with your imagination is that you are imagining being the crab while remaining yourself, as yourself. But this is nonsense. If you were a crab, you wouldn't be you as your identity is to be human, with all the typical human powers and capacities. But when you merely imagine being a crab, you essentially maintain your human identity while changing some minor features here and there. You are effectively anthropomorphizing. We don't live in some weird Cartesian universe where minds can be attached to any old living thing (though, strictly speaking, Descartes only recognized that human beings have minds).
BurningFrog 3y ago
One difficult thing to imagine is having no thoughts! At least not the way I/we have thoughts.
kirkules 3y ago
You're imagining something you think is what it's like to be a crab, or what you think it's like to have more legs, etc., but why do you have any confidence that's what it actually is like?

Etheryte 3y ago

And most important of all, would she still love you if you were a worm?

Justsignedup 3y ago
There's a story about a man who woke up as a dung bettle...
- mongol 3y ago
  The Metamorphosis? Yeah, a pretty sad story to say the least
  - anjel 3y ago
    We've all been there at some point in one way or another
akomtu 3y ago
If she was a crab, she certainly would.

tablarasa 3y ago

It is sometimes surprising to learn which organisms are more or less like us. Annelid worms like the ones you likely find in the soils where you live do have brains, for example, albeit ones with different characteristics than those of crustaceans or mammals [1]. They don’t have lungs though sometimes gills. Are they more like crabs or humans? Tough to say but fun to ponder. Incidentally, of the marine invertebrates, the ones we are most closely related to are tunicates and salps, which are blobs that filter feed [2]. Who said cladistics wasn’t cool? Imagine all the ways we can’t imagine how other organisms experience their existence. But as you learn more about their biology it’s incredible how much we share. 1. https://frontiersinzoology.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12983-019-0305-1 https://frontiersinzoology.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.118... 2. https://ocean.si.edu/ocean-life/invertebrates/tunicates-not-so-spineless-invertebrates https://ocean.si.edu/ocean-life/invertebrates/tunicates-not-...

logtempo 3y ago

The book "the tree of possibilities" wrote by Bernard Werber, contains twenty "philosophy-fiction" stories. One of them is about a scientist who want to "free" its brain from its body, so he put his brain in a jar, and just...think. I think it kind of relate to your comment. It's a good reading (an other story is the left hand of one guy taking control and starting to act as a human).

johngossman 3y ago
That sounds amazing. Did you read it in English? I can only find it in French and Korean.
- logtempo 3y ago
  I've read it in French, looks like it have never been translated in English. They are quite short novels, so maybe automatic traduction can work.

jemmyw 3y ago

Most worms don't actually become separate organisms when cut in half, it's just a myth based on their reaction. They usually just die after while.

bavell 3y ago
The only ones that I know of which do so are Planarians [0] [0] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Planarian https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Planarian

lgkk 3y ago

Interesting. How would it feel to know you’re just a battery?

timeagain 3y ago
Well you’re just a battery and you don’t seem to mind!

lo_zamoyski 3y ago

Well, we can imagine all sorts of things which have nothing to do with how things actually are. It gets us into problems all the time. The trouble with your imagination is that you are imagining being the crab while remaining yourself, as yourself. But this is nonsense. If you were a crab, you wouldn't be you as your identity is to be human, with all the typical human powers and capacities. But when you merely imagine being a crab, you essentially maintain your human identity while changing some minor features here and there. You are effectively anthropomorphizing. We don't live in some weird Cartesian universe where minds can be attached to any old living thing (though, strictly speaking, Descartes only recognized that human beings have minds).

BurningFrog 3y ago

One difficult thing to imagine is having no thoughts! At least not the way I/we have thoughts.

kirkules 3y ago

You're imagining something you think is what it's like to be a crab, or what you think it's like to have more legs, etc., but why do you have any confidence that's what it actually is like?