CHIN STROKER: Offbeat posts for people who overthink things and say ‘Hmmm...’ a lot.   

Introducing CHIN STROKER   

CHIN STROKER is a new sister series to FACT CANNON, where I intend to mull over some topics that are perhaps a little too leftfield or fanciful for FACT CANNON itself. Basically, if you enjoy pondering things like the meaning of life, where you came from, why you’re here and where you’re headed, then I hope you will enjoy CHIN STROKER. If you like your facts and information a little more verifiable then give this a miss and stick to the far more mainstream FACT CANNON series.  

Can you be sure you’re not a spider?

Image Credits

In FACT CANNON #4 I shared some observations on the behavior of the Cellar Spider, Pholcus Phalangioides, and considered the nature of spider intelligence. In this edition of CHIN STROKER, I go on to deliberate the nature of Pholcus’ self-awareness, consider Spider World, and ponder some implications for our experience of everyday reality. 

Is Pholcus Self Aware?  

Whatever you think of Pholcus’ behavior, it is fair to say that they present a range of behaviors which in the spectrum of things are broadly analogous to our own. Given any period of sustained observation, it is difficult not to anthropomorphize them. However, consciously putting this anthropomorphization to one side, it seems undeniable that the spider has physical needs, encounters external situations and judiciously selects an appropriate reaction from a range of different behaviors in a very similar way to which you or I would. Perhaps it also sometimes improvises new behaviours in novel situations, such as drinking or washing its legs above the shower.

It seems clear that the spider is busy inhabiting a layer of reality, or a world, that exists alongside our own. A world that we can gain a very crude understanding of by watching from the outside, but which we can never enter, and therefore can hope for only a very dim apprehension of what it would be like to inhabit. Of course, the same could be said for the worlds of many other creatures we could observe, or in fact the world of any other person other than ourselves! Hold this thought: A multitude of separate but overlapping worlds, all running alongside each other.

Anyway, back to the chase. Regardless of whether you believe Pholcus behavior is evidence of intelligence or not, it seems reasonable to assume that the spider is conducting itself with at least a rudimentary level of self-awareness. If you can accept this, (and I'd love to hear your reasoning if not), who are we to say whether this awareness / consciousness is any lesser or greater than that experienced by ourselves or by other people, eg your family, friends, colleagues, celebrity heroes? To the best of my knowledge none of us are equipped with the necessary sensory equipment to know one way or the other. Put another way, the only point of reference any of us have is our own experience of awareness, but given that we cannot experience the awareness of any other being, cold hard logic prevents us from making any comparisons at all.

Of course, we tend to assume, but we all know what assumption does.

The Thought Experiment

Given this reasoning, try this unusual little thought experiment. Imagine that one morning you wake, and while you slept your awareness had been transferred into a spider’s body. This would be minus your memory, which of course is stored in your current physical human brain, and therefore wouldn’t go with you. Would your world feel tangibly different to your current one? Any more ‘spidery’ or ‘alien’? Or would things seem completely normal? Wouldn’t it feel normal to have 8 legs and cling to webs, to be able to eject a great silk tether from your spinnerets? Do you think you would notice any difference at all? Presumably after a period of disorientation you would simply go about your daily business in much the same way as any other Pholcus would.

Put another way, today you are reading this article, and your awareness is almost certainly inhabiting a human body. But yesterday, your awareness could have been inhabiting the body of something that perceived your current human form as a spider, and you would have no way of knowing.

So back to the original question - Can you really be sure you're not a spider?    

I’d be interested to hear what you think.   

CHIN STROKER: Expanding the minds other blogs cannot reach.   

Previous editions of FACT CANNON: 

FACT CANNON #1: Romanesco Broccoli, A Reality-Bending Vegetable
FACT CANNON #2: How Frankenstein Was Born In The Fiery Heart of A Super Volcano
FACT CANNON #3: The Sad Tale of Paul The Psychic Octopus  
FACT CANNON #4: Pholcus - The Other People Who Live In Your House

 If you enjoyed this edition of CHIN STROKER, please upvote, comment, share and follow me. If you do maybe I’ll write more. If you don’t perhaps I’ll just keep my weird ideas to myself and go and do something more productive instead.