Octopi probably do "see" the ground behind them. They have more neurons in their skin than in their brain and the chroma-cells (forgot the technical name) are bi-directional "camera and display." So one side "sees" and transmits to opposing side for display. All without entering the central nervous brain.
davew On Fri, Apr 30, 2021, at 9:12 PM, [email protected] wrote: > Octopus ground mimicry is the thing I cannot understand. How do you copy > what you are not looking at? > > n > > Nick Thompson > [email protected] > https://wordpress.clarku.edu/nthompson/ > > -----Original Message----- > From: Friam <[email protected]> On Behalf Of Prof David West > Sent: Friday, April 30, 2021 8:57 PM > To: [email protected] > Subject: [FRIAM] something serious from something silly > > A discussion of UFOs occupied some time in FRIAM today, including the > observation that despite looking for "intelligent signals" ala SETI have > failed. > > Made me think of octopi (& other cephalopods) that communicate with > brilliant displays of rapidly changing color. We think that these displays > are more than reactive, that they are "intelligent communication." Mostly, > it seems to me, we infer this because we have a lot of context, including > interacting octopi, but if all we had was the "signal" absent the context, > would we recognize it as "intelligent?" > > I am not phrasing the question very well, but if we had nothing except a > 5-minute video of an octopus' surface changing color, would we be able to > detect a hidden order or structure that would allow a reasonable > determination that it originated from an intelligent species? > > davew > > - .... . -..-. . -. -.. -..-. .. ... -..-. .... . .-. . > FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv > Zoom Fridays 9:30a-12p Mtn GMT-6 bit.ly/virtualfriam un/subscribe > http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com > FRIAM-COMIC http://friam-comic.blogspot.com/ > archives: http://friam.471366.n2.nabble.com/ > > > - .... . -..-. . -. -.. -..-. .. ... -..-. .... . .-. . > FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv > Zoom Fridays 9:30a-12p Mtn GMT-6 bit.ly/virtualfriam > un/subscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com > FRIAM-COMIC http://friam-comic.blogspot.com/ > archives: http://friam.471366.n2.nabble.com/ > - .... . -..-. . -. -.. -..-. .. ... -..-. .... . .-. . FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv Zoom Fridays 9:30a-12p Mtn GMT-6 bit.ly/virtualfriam un/subscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com FRIAM-COMIC http://friam-comic.blogspot.com/ archives: http://friam.471366.n2.nabble.com/
