Octopod
The party's over, the teams return from whence they came, the 2010 World Cup is done. Hovering behind the games is the image of the octopus named Paul, who predicted the correct outcome of eight matches and ensured himself a place in history.
It is a somewhat Cthulhoid idea, that in the whorled snarls of the octopus's tentacles there is a mysterious apparatus which transcends human senses and can plot, prophesy, scry, or see as through a glass darkly, the results of World Cup football matches. But it is a compelling and evocative picture.
After all, the octopus is the smartest of all invertebrates, the only one of that enormous array of life-forms to use tools. If we count in binary through our twofold surface symmetry, an octopus can count in octal; if we count in denary through our ten digits (thus making our hands both digital as well as analogue, denary as well as binary), an octopus can count in the most useful factors of its 240 suckers per arm.
To make matters more complicated, an octopus has 2/3 of its brains in its limbs, which are really outgrowths of its neck. Each of those tentacles is much smarter than our own limbs. They are not mere feet, as the word 'octopod' might imply.
An octopod drummer would have eight intelligent limbs, each capable of autonomous action, a veritable orchestra of musicians linked to a single conducting node. Think of the complexity of sound, of aural texture, of colour and echo!
Think of what feats of computation are available to an intelligent creature who has so many more combinations and permutations of 'digits' than we have. Is it any wonder that an otherwise undistinguished member of that species can predict the outcomes of World Cup matches? Would we be able to predict the outcomes of octopus sports?
It is a somewhat Cthulhoid idea, that in the whorled snarls of the octopus's tentacles there is a mysterious apparatus which transcends human senses and can plot, prophesy, scry, or see as through a glass darkly, the results of World Cup football matches. But it is a compelling and evocative picture.
After all, the octopus is the smartest of all invertebrates, the only one of that enormous array of life-forms to use tools. If we count in binary through our twofold surface symmetry, an octopus can count in octal; if we count in denary through our ten digits (thus making our hands both digital as well as analogue, denary as well as binary), an octopus can count in the most useful factors of its 240 suckers per arm.
To make matters more complicated, an octopus has 2/3 of its brains in its limbs, which are really outgrowths of its neck. Each of those tentacles is much smarter than our own limbs. They are not mere feet, as the word 'octopod' might imply.
An octopod drummer would have eight intelligent limbs, each capable of autonomous action, a veritable orchestra of musicians linked to a single conducting node. Think of the complexity of sound, of aural texture, of colour and echo!
Think of what feats of computation are available to an intelligent creature who has so many more combinations and permutations of 'digits' than we have. Is it any wonder that an otherwise undistinguished member of that species can predict the outcomes of World Cup matches? Would we be able to predict the outcomes of octopus sports?
Labels: Biology, Divination, Invertebrates
etched with acid at 1:31:00 pm
1 Comments:
After reading this, I sense an increase in my general knowledge regarding octopods/octopodes. Enjoyed the way you wrote the engaging post. Thank you!
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