[simondotau]

> It's how you can know what an octopus is thinking

You mean, it’s how you can assign anthropomorphised assumptions to the octopus. There’s a world difference between having semi reliable predictive power and actually knowing something.

[jjk166]

Yes, exactly how you assign those assumptions to humans despite having no way of actually knowing that they have rich internal lives comparable to your own. It is the ability to simulate a mind foreign to your own and anticipate how it would respond to circumstances.

[simondotau]

We don’t have to assume with humans. We can introspect our emotions and discuss them with others. Though we can’t be precise, we can understand and distinguish concepts like shame vs humiliation which appear to be (effectively) universal to the human experience.

That is a world apart from seeing an octopus react to something and assuming that anything resembling emotions are involved at all.

[jjk166]

> We can introspect our emotions and discuss them with others.

And theory of mind is how you can know what someone is thinking without them telling you.

[simondotau]

Because we have prior knowledge to rely on.

[jjk166]

As opposed to built in neural pathways or pheromone responses.