Exploring the octopus mind

[Music]

do you ever get that feeling

like you’re being watched

i’m working in my marine lab one night

it’s dark

but i can tell that every time i move

the subject i’m studying

moves too like i’m being followed

its eight limbs explore the darkness

around it

slithering hypnotically to the rhythm of

a silent orchestra

it fixes its unblinking eyes on me

and i wonder who is studying whom

i’m currently graduate student and i

study octopus intelligence

in the four years that i’ve been

studying the octopus i’ve experienced

this encounter

again and again i’m interested

in the biological origins of the mind

there’s something truly humbling knowing

that human intelligence

and all of its potential to create and

innovate

is a product of evolution like all life

on earth

along my academic path i began studying

invertebrates

the average human doesn’t know very much

about invertebrates

animals that don’t have a spine or

internal skeleton as we have

yet the invertebrates make up over 95

of animal life

so it turns out we vertebrates

we are the weird ones i spent the summer

in the san juan islands at friday harper

labs

where i had an opportunity to study an

incredible diversity of invertebrates

there were tanks of urchins sea

cucumbers

sea slugs crustaceans anemones

shellfish and lots of worms

most of these animals didn’t seem to

mind or notice my presence

only one animal was observing me back

the octopus was uniquely aware of its

surroundings

i was fascinated by the way it moved by

its ability to coordinate

its multiple jointless limbs so fluidly

and so elegantly and by its ability to

change its color and texture to match

its surroundings

when this animal died i looked at its

skin under a microscope

so i can see the elements of its

camouflage abilities

it was like looking at a landscape of

another planet or another dimension

then the skin

woke up the octopus had died hours ago

but its skin was moving

changing in waves of color before my

eyes

the skin was alive

the octopuses body and mind seemed

worlds apart from our own

and that of our vertebrate can

the octopus became a unique lens through

which i could study the mind

this path has reframed my understanding

of human intelligence

and how we perceive and think about the

world

i had wandered into the rabbit hole

but this animal is not a rabbit

far from it the octopus is like nothing

else i’ve ever encountered

octopuses don’t have a skeleton their

movement is therefore not bound by any

kind of rigidity

their arms can bend anywhere in any

direction

the octopus can’t rely on its arms being

shaped the same way twice

this means unlike other animals the

octopus lacks

rhythmic pattern to its locomotion

on each of its arms it has hundreds of

suckers where the eight arms meet is

where its beak

is the octopus has a beak by the way

the bag behind its eyes is its body

where you’ll find its

organs like its kidneys its three hearts

and its stomach the octopus has three

hearts by the way

they’re full of fun facts

before i talk about their brain let’s

talk about aries

our brain sits in our skulls and is

highly centralized

the human brain is an immense

concentration of neurons

it’s a complex circuit capable of

complex thought

it gives us incredible abilities to

process and understand the world around

us

the octopus’s cognition is quite

different

it’s distributed most of its brain

exists within its arms

the octopus relies on this distributed

nervous system to be able to control its

body

there are so many different ways for the

arms to move that the brain would be

overloaded if it was solely responsible

for controlling them

instead the octopus relies on local

control centers within its arms

the arms are therefore very independent

the arms and suckers can

interact with the world around them with

minimal feedback from the brain

you can think of the relationship

between the octopus and its arms like

our relationship with our technology

like our phones or our computers or our

cars

which are all growing smarter by the day

they think about things so we don’t have

to

but this also means that there’s a lot

that they are thinking about

that we are unaware of

i study how the arms and suckers work

together to gather information from

their environment

how they cooperate to explore and to

solve problems

as a diver i also spend a fair bit of

time underwater trying to find them

but the octopus is an animal that

evolved to not be found

with their incredible camouflage

abilities

an octopus might appear as no more than

a piece of kelp lined with suckers

or a rock with eyes i have likely been

observed by many animals on dives when i

did not see a single one

it is a humbling ritual visiting their

remote world

the cold dark green water of the pacific

northwest

and my limited air supply seemed to

compound this feeling

my years of studying the octopus have

felt like

the study of an alien life form

but strangely over time

i began to feel an uncanny sense of

kinship with them

the unnerving feeling like i was always

being watched

eventually turned into a feeling of

comfort

like we are two other worldly creatures

mirroring each other’s behavior

as i studied and observed them they

always seem to be doing the same thing

back to me they are marvelously curious

animals

when they are awake and active they

constantly wander

and watch me and reach their arms

into unseen corners of their tank

if they’re not given something to do

something to enrich them to stimulate

them

they become very unhappy and unhealthy

they explore mostly with their arms and

suckers where they keep most of their

brain

a single sucker has tens of thousands

of mechanical and chemical receptors

that it uses to

feel and taste its surroundings and the

world around it

a single sucker is a hundred times

more sensitive than a human fingertip

each sucker can coordinate with its

neighbors to crawl to explore

and manipulate objects to study the

octopus

i give them problem-solving tasks then

analyze how they solve them

it’s an opportunity for them to satisfy

their curiosity

while i have a chance to satisfy mine

it’s an

opportunity to meet them halfway

but i’ll also give them toys pray to

find and hunt

and objects with unique textures like

rocks or shells or

even legos a healthy and confident

animal

will investigate pretty much anything we

add to their tanks

when they reach out for me when we make

contact

their quasi-intelligent limbs explore my

skin

with hundreds of coordinated sensitive

suckers

i’m making contact with their body but

it feels like

i’m making contact with their mind

there is still so much to learn about

these animals

and with each new discovery we learn

more of what it would be like to meet

and understand

a completely different form of

intelligence and who knows

that might be a future for us one day

my goal is to not just understand their

mind as a machine or a computer

but to be able to read them to empathize

with them

and to comprehend their experience of

the world as an entirely different form

of thought

i didn’t expect to form such a bond with

animals that seemed so alien

to be invested in an animal that is so

different

and so difficult to understand is an

incredible emotional challenge

to finally build trust with such an

animal

is a very rewarding experience

this has become more than just an

academic path for me

studying the octopus has radically

changed my perspective on the human mind

these mysterious and complex creatures

have shown me

that the human mind is just one of many

possible forms of intelligence

at the end of the day their curiosity

and their drive to explore always remind

me of why i do this work

how incredible that this feeling of

curiosity

is shared across the ancient

evolutionary divide between us

this feeling was so important for us and

our progress as a species

it led the way for human discovery and

innovation

it has led us across the world and will

one day lead us beyond

it was fundamental to technology and

civilization

and has led the way to pursuing

the greatest mysteries of the universe

when we turn our gaze to the stars into

worlds beyond

our own when we wonder what alien forms

of life are evolving in the universe

around us

i would guess that someone somewhere

is wondering the same thing despite our

differences

what will bring us together will be our

shared pursuit

of the unknown

thank you