Today’s conversation is with Roger Hanlon of the Marine Biological Laboratory at Woods Hole. Roger is a globally-renowned expert on cephalopod (octopuses, cuttlefish, nautiluses, and squid). He’s also a top sensory ecologist – which means he studies how the sensory ranges of different animals impact their behavior and (to the extent that we can really know) their conscious experiences.
To get a visceral sense for what this sort of research is about, start with Thomas Nagel’s famous question, “What is it like to be a bat?” Among other things, bats have famously poor eyesight, and an ability to hear frequencies far beyond the range of human ears. This means they perceive the exact environment that we inhabit in a radically different way. And of course this influences almost every aspect of their lives.
This is a remarkably rich and wide-ranging conversation – and I hope you enjoy it as much as I did!
