VAMPYROTEUTHIS INFERNALIS

How far apart are humans from animals-even the vampire squid from hell? Playing the scientist/philosopher/provocateur, Vilém Flusser uses this question as a springboard to dive into a literal and a philosophical ocean. The abyss that separates us from the vampire squid (or vampire octopus, perhaps, since Vampyroteuthis infernalis inhabits its own phylogenetic order somewhere between the two) i s incomparably smaller than that which separates us from extraterrestrial life, as imagined in science fiction and sought by astrobi ologists,...[Read more]