Sometimes 'text only' trumps an article that has pictures and moving video. It is good to have one's imagination work overtime rather than have everything 'spelt out' with imagery.
At one moment I was imagining an octopus bigger than myself, able to drag me into a tank and maybe eat me whole. The next moment I was learning of an octopus able to fit inside a beer bottle (note to self: be careful what one picks up when scuba diving!).
I feel I might actually remember more about the life of the octopus from having read this article and having to engage my imagination than what I might have learned had I sat through some nature programme on TV. Plus it takes less time to read than it does to endure a programme. I also now know things I don't know, such as what it is to make eye contact with an octopus, something that a TV programme could go some way to describe.
Aside from the 'wow, intelligence', why is it that those of us with spines lack any 'computing power' in things like our arms? Are there any common sense reasons?
> Aside from the 'wow, intelligence', why is it that those of us with spines lack any 'computing power' in things like our arms? Are there any common sense reasons?
I wonder if the fact that we can't grow them back is a factor. I could imagine that this would make it hard for us to evolve any sort of appendage intelligence that was important to our function.
Our arms are far more limited in movement, and probably don't require as much processing power to operate. Easier to do from a relatively remote location like our brain pan, I guess.
At one moment I was imagining an octopus bigger than myself, able to drag me into a tank and maybe eat me whole. The next moment I was learning of an octopus able to fit inside a beer bottle (note to self: be careful what one picks up when scuba diving!).
I feel I might actually remember more about the life of the octopus from having read this article and having to engage my imagination than what I might have learned had I sat through some nature programme on TV. Plus it takes less time to read than it does to endure a programme. I also now know things I don't know, such as what it is to make eye contact with an octopus, something that a TV programme could go some way to describe.
Aside from the 'wow, intelligence', why is it that those of us with spines lack any 'computing power' in things like our arms? Are there any common sense reasons?