<div dir="auto">Cool conversation about octopus. While not scientific, I really enjoyed the move \u201cMy Octopus Teacher\u201d. Insightful and thought provoking. </div><div><br><div class="gmail_quote"><div dir="ltr" class="gmail_attr">On Sat, May 1, 2021 at 9:02 AM Prof David West <<a href="mailto:profwest@fastmail.fm">profwest@fastmail.fm</a>> wrote:<br></div><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0px 0px 0px 0.8ex;border-left-width:1px;border-left-style:solid;padding-left:1ex;border-left-color:rgb(204,204,204)">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.<br>
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davew<br>
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On Fri, Apr 30, 2021, at 9:12 PM, <a href="mailto:thompnickson2@gmail.com" target="_blank">thompnickson2@gmail.com</a> wrote:<br>
> Octopus ground mimicry is the thing I cannot understand. How do you copy<br>
> what you are not looking at?<br>
> <br>
> n<br>
> <br>
> Nick Thompson<br>
> <a href="mailto:ThompNickSon2@gmail.com" target="_blank">ThompNickSon2@gmail.com</a><br>
> <a href="https://wordpress.clarku.edu/nthompson/" rel="noreferrer" target="_blank">https://wordpress.clarku.edu/nthompson/</a><br>
> <br>
> -----Original Message-----<br>
> From: Friam <<a href="mailto:friam-bounces@redfish.com" target="_blank">friam-bounces@redfish.com</a>> On Behalf Of Prof David West<br>
> Sent: Friday, April 30, 2021 8:57 PM<br>
> To: <a href="mailto:friam@redfish.com" target="_blank">friam@redfish.com</a><br>
> Subject: [FRIAM] something serious from something silly<br>
> <br>
> A discussion of UFOs occupied some time in FRIAM today, including the<br>
> observation that despite looking for "intelligent signals" ala SETI have<br>
> failed. <br>
> <br>
> Made me think of octopi (& other cephalopods) that communicate with<br>
> brilliant displays of rapidly changing color. We think that these displays<br>
> are more than reactive, that they are "intelligent communication." Mostly,<br>
> it seems to me, we infer this because we have a lot of context, including<br>
> interacting octopi, but if all we had was the "signal" absent the context,<br>
> would we recognize it as "intelligent?"<br>
> <br>
> I am not phrasing the question very well, but if we had nothing except a<br>
> 5-minute video of an octopus' surface changing color, would we be able to<br>
> detect a hidden order or structure that would allow a reasonable<br>
> determination that it originated from an intelligent species?<br>
> <br>
> davew<br>
> <br>
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</blockquote></div></div>