#Nature #Psychology #2024/1 ![[soul_of_an_octopus_cover.png]] [Amazon](https://www.amazon.com/Soul-Octopus-Surprising-Exploration-Consciousness/dp/1451697724) I found this book at the Smithsonian Natural History museum and was sold by the title. The octopus is a mysterious animal with renowned intelligence, and I wanted to learn more. The book was quite touching, as the author is very good at getting you to feel the connection she and the other people in the book have with the octopuses under their care at the aquarium. The book was written for a general audience so it isn't dense, but there's a lot of interesting information about octopuses if you aren't already familiar with them. I want to share a bit of what I've learned about octopuses. ### About Octopuses "Octopi" is not technically the correct plural for multiple octopuses. This is because you aren't supposed to mix Latin and Greek endings. Even though the octopus appears to be an incredibly strange creature, it makes a lot of sense when you consider its evolutionary path. Octopuses are invertebrates, and so diverged from our path on the phylogenetic tree hundreds of millions of years ago. Most creatures whose intelligence we are interested in aren't far from humans in evolutionary terms. We're mostly mammals, and generally all vertebrates. We're used to extremely centralized nervous systems and intelligence being a facilitator of complex social interactions. Octopuses are very different. Octopuses are much closer to snails and clams than mammals or reptiles. What the octopus lacks among their closest relatives is the protection of a hard shell. This makes them extremely vulnerable in the wild. In order to survive, they utilize many strategies that seem alien to our instincts. For example, octopuses hatch tens of thousands of eggs and release the hatched octopuses into the current, floating around until they reach a size where they can claim some of the ocean floor. In order to survive, they grow extremely fast, doubling their weight every 2-3 months. Still, the proportion of successful octopus hatchlings is minuscule, with single digit numbers of octopuses reaching mature size. Once they do reach a healthy size, they become extremely dynamic creatures. They are capable of sophisticated camouflage and borderline shapeshifting, as they can fit through any hole larger than their eyeball. Their skin has many specialized structures for changing color and texture, which they can control intentionally as well as reflexively. Their skin is flush with photoreceptors as well, so even though their eyes can't discern color, their skin can. All of these capabilities aren't only for evading predators, but for supporting their own predation. Octopuses hunt many different types of creatures including clams, shrimp, and fish. They are even occasionally cannibalistic, as they are extremely solitary and will [fight other octopuses](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BZpxDo_6-rA) on sight. These shapeshifting strategies come in handy for sneaking up on prey, but the sheer strength of an octopus is also worth consideration. Each sucker on an octopus's arm can lift around 35 pounds, and they have somewhere between 1,500 and 2,000 suckers. So they can be extremely dangerous to humans if they choose, even if they aren't especially large (although [some](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V57Dfn_F69c&t=200s) are huge!). Some species of octopus are seriously venomous in addition to their strength. They are bona fide killing machines, as fearsome as a shark or an orca. However, after learning about the octopus I was less impressed by their deadly capabilities than their curiosity and intelligence. Remember how I mentioned we are used to studying animals with highly centralized nervous systems? The octopus is a great example of a highly sophisticated creature with a much more [decentralized nervous system](https://www.wellbeingintlstudiesrepository.org/animsent/vol4/iss26/1/). Two-thirds of an octopus's neurons are found in the tentacles. They have many reflexive circuits that allow the tentacles to operate independently of the brain, and even neural pathways between tentacles bypassing the brain entirely. This allows the octopus to constantly search its environment, interact with objects and creatures, and feed itself. Many stories in *the Soul of an Octopus* revolve around multiple humans spending time with a single octopus simultaneously, where the octopus happily touches each human and continues to also explore its environment, eat food it was given, or even steal food while the humans are distracted. Octopuses are also extremely capable of solving intelligence problems, which makes for many [entertaining YouTube videos](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7__r4FVj-EI). I was really struck by the curiosity of the strange octopus, who probably thinks the same thing of us. "What are these clever primates doing in my ocean?"