Predicting World Cup soccer results, escaping captivity in mysterious ways: many of us have heard the stories about some of the mischief cephalopods can get up to.
Peter Godfrey-Smith is a scuba Diver and philosopher of science. He believes interacting with octopus and cuttlefish is like connecting with aliens.
He contemplates why these creatures from the sea have evolved in such a unique and mysterious way in his book Other Minds: The Octopus, the Sea, and the Deep Origins of Consciousness.
Dr Godfrey-Smith first met octopus while diving in Sydney harbour, and says he began to realise how important they are.
He says they’re mischievous creatures, which is a reflection of their exploratory tendencies.
“They have a strong interest in novelty, they like new things, unusual things and that draws them to continually explore and find ways to manipulate things.”
Instances of octopuses squirting water at humans while in captivity are an indication of that mischievousness, he says.
“They have a water jet, which they use for various purposes and in the sea, if you’re in the sea and bother an octopus, it will quite often squirt you with a water jet, which doesn’t feel like much because you’re in the water.
“In an aquarium they will quite often aim the water jet out of the water, at a person passing by and squirt them quite accurately with it.”
A recent experiment revealed octopuses could recognise humans, Godfrey-Smith says.
"The octopuses could tell, on the basis of quite subtle cues it would seem, who was who in front of them and would behave differently towards them."
Octopuses have what’s called a ‘camera-eye’, which can focus and is similar to a human eye.
“Octopuses are hunters. They don’t lie in wait of their prey, they actively go out and find them and so from an evolutionary perspective, it makes sense. They’re also constantly being hunted by other animals and fish.”
He describes an octopus’s life as complicated, with more than half of their 500 million neurons not found in their head.
The arms contain not just neurons, but a wide range of senses as well, Godfrey-Smith says.
“So everything an arm touches, is tasted as well, with respect to shape. An arm is really quite a complex information processing device.”
A complex creature, but a short-lived one, he says
“For an animal to grow for an appreciable size, from an egg and for all that neurological complexity to evolve and all those experiences to happen, it’s very surprising how short their lives are.”
He says the best way to look for octopuses in the wild is to look for its house.
“They love to collect things, have a particular fondness for bits of old glass, which they put around their house.
“I once found one who’d found of clear Perspex and had put it above his den, a little bit like a skylight… it had sort of protect but was able to look out. It was a very charming sight.”
