
Deep Intellect - sergeant3
https://orionmagazine.org/article/deep-intellect/
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azakai
> Some octopuses did not like being removed from their tanks. They would hide.
> They would squeeze into a corner where they couldn’t be pried out. They
> would hold on to some object with their arms and not let go.

> Some would let themselves be captured, only to use the net as a trampoline.
> They’d leap off the mesh and onto the floor — and then run for it. Yes, run.
> “You’d chase them under the tank, back and forth, like you were chasing a
> cat,” Warburton said. “It’s so weird!”

> [..] “Catching her for the maze always took twenty minutes,” Warburton said.
> “She’d grip onto something and not let go. Once she got stuck in a filter
> and we couldn’t get her out. It was awful!”

What seems far more awful is using these apparently-highly-intelligent animals
for laboratory experiments, against their will.

This isn't the usual argument of animal rights. Here we have a highly
intelligent and inventive creature repeatedly trying its best to escape - it's
hard not to identify with it! - and the scientists just recapture it by force.
They actively oppose the animal's attempts to liberate itself, again and
again.

~~~
Retra
All wild animals try to escape...

~~~
bduerst
Most wild animals lack the cognitive and spatial abilities of octopodes, or
match their use of tools. There is a difference between sprinting away and
making planned, sapient decisions to escape.

The intelligence of some cephalopods is a controversial topic, as their limb
dexterity and brain-to-mass ratios makes them unique, and they have some
protection from research in the E.U.

~~~
Retra
> _There is a difference between sprinting away and making planned, sapient
> decisions to escape._

What's the difference? They're both instinctual responses to a perceived
threat.

Now, I'm not saying we should be killing animals indiscriminately. I'm saying
that decision has nothing to do with whether the animal knows which direction
to flee or how to hide. That's like trying to decide whether to buy a house
based on the number in the ones place of its price.

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D_Alex
Sooo... can we breed octopi for intelligence? How far could that rise in say a
hundred years?

and I just found this...: [http://danielkeating.blogspot.com.au/2012/01/could-
we-breed-...](http://danielkeating.blogspot.com.au/2012/01/could-we-breed-
dogs-as-smart-as-people.html)

~~~
joshmarlow
The idea of breeding cephalopods for increased intelligence is touched on in
the (great) novel, "Manifold: Time".

Not cephalopods specifically, but the idea of breeding smarter animals is
touched on by David Brin in his "Uplift" novels.

I've often thought about how fascinating it would be if some organization took
on the long-term task of breeding for intelligence. Perhaps it would require a
well-funded non-profit to provide the resources. Could it be done more open-
source styled, with standardized tests, individuals breeding animals and
submitting gene sequences for analysis (is there a 23andme for animals)?

How interesting would it be to (ultimately) talk to a gorilla or octopus
philosopher?

~~~
WalterBright
We breed dogs for all kinds of absurd features. Why not try and breed them for
intelligence?

~~~
MrJagil
I believe we do, labradors and such for sniffing out drugs and explosives or
guiding blind people.

------
HSO
Has been expanded by the author into a book:

[1] S. Montgomery. The Soul of an Octopus: A Surprising Exploration into the
Wonder of Consciousness. Atria Books, 2015.

This story made my day, and it's not even noon yet! 😊 Looking forward to learn
more about octopuses tonight.

~~~
coldcode
I've read this twice before and it touches me each time. I can't eat octopus
any more.

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moonchrome
I wonder if people prefer this style of writing ? I feel like I've read 2-3
paragraphs worth of data and a few quotes buerried in wordstream on authors
feelings and impressions.

Maybe I'm too used to reading technical stuff :/

~~~
mattlutze
The rhetorical method we like to call "science writing" is a particularly
useful way to help a non-expert reader understand a new topic. You tell a
story around a scientific topic and the reader can both engage with an
otherwise foreign topic and gain a greater appreciation / knowledge of it.

In this case... the author wants to help the reader understand that these
animals are intelligent. He personifies them through a series of anecdotes and
approaches encounters from an octopus-first perspective, to help the reader
"get in the headspace" of the various octopuses.

This passage stuck out to me and I had to include it:

> Perhaps I had understood something basic about what it felt like to be
> Athena at that moment: she was hungry. I handed a fish to one of her larger
> suckers, and she began to move it toward her mouth. But soon she brought
> more arms to the task, and covered the fish with many suckers — as if she
> were licking her fingers, savoring the meal.

A lot of people are now in their own bodies as well as Athena the Octopus',
thinking about food they love to eat.

In the end, many readers will come away feeling like, in a little way, they
"were" the octopus, and appreciating them more.

------
dharma1
I have stopped eating octopus since I read how intelligent they are. Just
seems wrong.

------
tlarkworthy
[2011]

