<story><title>The Octopus Is Smart as Heck, But Why?</title><url>https://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/30/science/animal-intelligence-octopus-cephalopods.html</url></story><parent_chain></parent_chain><comment><author>jaggednad</author><text>One theory why primates evolved big brains is because they had hands. Big brains for an animal like a gazelle don’t pay off because, without hands, there isn’t much a gazelle can do with that big brain. Better it use that energy for bigger leg muscles. Primates evolves hands so they could better grasp branches, but, once they had hands, there was a lot more they could do with them, like make tools. A bigger brain for a creature with hands is an evolutionary advantage, because that bigger brain allows complex behaviors that can be carried out with hands. I bet octopuses are intelligent for a similar reason. Its body is like one big hand, and there are lots of complex behaviors it can carry out with those tentacles. Similar for its color changing skin. There are many complex and useful ways that skin can be used, so it pays to have a big brain. The important point is that the bodily appendages came first, and those appendages made it actually useful to have a big brain. I find it more surprising that dolphins became intelligent, but the article is right that living in groups capable of communication and cooperation can similarly make big brains pay off, because the animal can engage in complex group behaviors.</text></comment>
<story><title>The Octopus Is Smart as Heck, But Why?</title><url>https://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/30/science/animal-intelligence-octopus-cephalopods.html</url></story><parent_chain></parent_chain><comment><author>rland</author><text>Octopuses are really incredible creatures. They diverged from humans in the evolutionary tree hundreds of millions of years ago. Our common ancestor would have been a very dumb animal. Their brain structure is so different: 8 semi-autonomous tentacles, with one sort of central coordinating body. What could it possibly be like to experience the world that way? They&amp;#x27;re probably the &amp;quot;peak&amp;quot; of intelligence with the most prominence, along with humans and intelligent swarming insects like bees and termites. I think it&amp;#x27;s really interesting. Is is it really possible to measure this kind of intelligence? Can we ever know just how smart they are?&lt;p&gt;And, of course, they&amp;#x27;re just interesting creatures regardless. Their bodies is flexible, yet strong, like one continuous muscle. Each tentacle has a slightly different &amp;quot;personality;&amp;quot; for a single octopus, some of its tentacles are more adventurous while others are more shy. They can change the color of their entire body, and do, for reasons we haven&amp;#x27;t figured out yet. They mate once, after which the female guards the egg cache without moving from the spot until she withers away.&lt;p&gt;Everything I read about them absolutely floors me. They&amp;#x27;re the closest thing we have to an intelligent alien species.</text></comment>