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Other Minds is very good. The Soul of an Octopus by Sy Montgomery is similar but covers some different topics, including the author's relationship with a couple different octopuses.

Awesome, somewhat speculative and philosophical science book on this topic: Other Minds by Peter Godfrey

Wiki - https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Other_Minds:_The_Octopus,_th...

Review - https://www.theguardian.com/books/2017/mar/15/other-minds-pe...

I strongly recommend both of these books. The Soul of an Octopus is more anecdotal and Other Minds is more academic; in sum they offer not just a fascinating picture of octopuses, but a larger discussion on consciousness and foreign intelligence.

Other Minds by Peter Godfrey-Smith has some interesting thoughts about this.

The gist is that because they have such (relative) short lives, their lessened need to be defensive allows them to be more curious.

I read the book "Other Minds: The Octopus, the Sea, and the Deep Origins of Consciousness" last year. Very interesting book about octopi. https://www.amazon.com/Other-Minds-Octopus-Origins-Conscious...

There are actually a very small number of octopus "cities". For one, see: https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/octopus-city-obser...

I highly recommend "Other Minds: The Octopus, the Sea, and the Deep Origins of Consciousness" for a fascinating look at octopus evolution and comparison to ourselves.

Isn't "intelligent life" just a function of time of "life"?
I am reading the book "Other Minds: The Octopus, the Sea, and the Deep Origins of Consciousness" currently and the book makes the case that intelligence and/or consciousness has evolved separately in mammals (humans) and cephalopods.

The more I look at diversity and evolution of life on Earth, it seems like "intelligent life" as we know it is just a inevitable consequence of evolution, given enough time, perhaps.

Although I've read this before, its nice to re-read this now that I have started to pay a bit more attention to theory of mind. I don't have much to offer here except some resources for further exploration. Currently I am reading "Thinking Fast and Slow" which explores related ideas to what Wallace is getting at here but with the rigour of psychology (for all the caveats that come with that).

You could also try Sam Harris' "waking up" app which claims to achieve what is talked about in Wallace's essay through meditation. From my dabbling with it, it is somewhat true if not entirely true.

Finally you could explore broader works on the mind. I have been listening to audiobooks on animal intelligence ("Other Minds" and "The Genius of Birds") and have made a start on a history of psychology/psychiatry - "The Mind Fixers", which is a bit dry but also filled with wonderful anecdotes and stories.

Cephalopods are magnificent. I knew they were smart and curious but I was caught off guard the first time I realized that a curious cuttlefish was making eye contact with me. No other reef animals exhibit anything like this kind of intelligence; the dissimilarity is striking. When you start to doubt your interpretation they quite literally flash their emotional state through color changes that seem as telling as human facial expressions.

The article mentions [NSFW!] The Dream of the Fisherman's Wife [1] (erotic Japanese art from 1814) and the books Other Minds: The Octopus, the Sea, and the Deep Origins of Consciousness [2] by Peter Godfrey-Smith and The Soul of an Octopus: A Surprising Exploration into the Wonder of Consciousness by Sy Montgomery [3].

[1] NSFW! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Dream_of_the_Fisherman%27s...

[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Other_Minds:_The_Octopus,_the_...

[3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sy_Montgomery

EDIT: added NSFW! warnings.

The first link "The Octopus: An Alien Among Us" is a good window into the world of animal intelligence research. I am going through a phase of listening to audiobooks on this topic. I can recommend both "Other Minds" by Peter Godfrey-Smith and "The Genius of Birds" by Jennifer Ackerman if you want good audiobooks that give a whirlwind tour through animal intelligence research into cephalopods and birds, respectively.

> some attributes which we think of as uniquely human, such as intelligence or consciousness, aren't actually so unique

If you find this topic interesting I'd highly suggest reading the book Other Minds [1] and maybe Being a Beast [2]. Apparently there was a Y fork millions of years ago in the tree of life where vertebrates and invertebrates split. It's interesting that both branches developed advanced nervous systems, specifically octopi and mammals. What's the purpose of an octopus having the highest brain to body mass of any invertebrate? Especially when they live ~2 years. Also, 2/3 of their neurons are found in its arms. Imagine thinking with your arms or seeing with your skin - they have photoreceptors in their skin and are able to match their environment yet they're color blind.

[1] https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/28116739-other-minds

[2] https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/28696605-being-a-beast

If you found the article interesting, i highly recommend this book: "Other Minds: The Octopus, the Sea, and the Deep Origins of Consciousness". It is a fascinating description of how cephalopods are the closest thing to intelligence that is built vastly different from us. The author also explores philosophical questions (à la Thomas Nagel) What does it feel like to be an octopus? Does it have multiple selves? The book doesn't have all the answers and sort of fizzles out at the end, but definitely one of my better reads this year.