Only recently have scientists accorded chimpanzees, so closely related to humans we can share blood transfusions, the dignity of having a mind. But now, increasingly, researchers who study octopuses are convinced that these boneless, alien animals—creatures whose ancestors diverged from the lineage that would lead to ours roughly 500 to 700 million years ago—have developed intelligence, emotions, and individual personalities. Their findings are challenging our understanding of consciousness itself.
One of my favourite recent reads.
Great piece. What I loved is how the researchers all referred to the octopuses with pronouns like “someone” instead of “something”.
This is so cool.
The biggest problem I have with much of science fiction I’ve read/seen is the ease with which human beings communicate with other life forms. It takes us a long enough period of time just to learn each other’s languages, and we still don’t effectively communicate with other species on this planet. I understand that it may not seem like much of a story if it’s about two distinctly different beings who attempt and fail to communicate anything to one another, but isn’t this the goddamn point? Failure is the cornerstone of good fiction. We don’t accomplish anything with unbridled success.
Even more troubling is the certainty that some of the intelligent species accessible to us will simply cease to exist during our run of the planet. This will lead us to continually concentrate on the fictitious aliens among the stars and the dull escape of being effortlessly understood.
(Source: orionmagazine.com)