The most INSANE things fish can do | Sébastien Moro
Science writer and video blogger Sébastien Moro joins host Luisa Rodriguez to talk about the latest research on fish consciousness, intelligence, and potential sentience.
They cover:
• The insane capabilities of fish in tests of memory, learning, and problem-solving.
• Examples of fish that can beat primates on cognitive tests and recognise individual human faces.
• Fishes’ social lives, including pair bonding, “personalities,” cooperation, and cultural transmission.
• Whether fish can experience emotions, and how this is even studied.
• The wild evolutionary innovations of fish, who adapted to thrive in diverse environments from mangroves to the deep sea.
• How some fish have sensory capabilities we can’t even really fathom — like “seeing” electrical fields and colours we can’t perceive.
• Ethical issues raised by evidence that fish may be conscious and experience suffering.
• And plenty more.
Chapters:
• Cold open (00:00:00)
• Luisa's intro (00:01:02)
• The interview begins (00:02:45)
• The wild diversity of fish (00:03:18)
• The fish who can outperform chimps in cognition tests (00:12:24)
• The mirror test and problems with these tests (00:24:47)
• Learning and tool use (00:40:48)
• Consciousness and sentience (01:00:07)
• Nociception and pain (01:05:34)
• Boredom and depression (01:24:50)
• Memory (01:48:22)
• Metacognition and self-control (02:04:23)
• How do fish perceive the world through their senses? (02:11:22)
• Social lives of fish and fish personalities (02:36:51)
• How representative are these results? (02:59:02)
• Sébastien’s TV and movie recommendations (03:06:22)
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