Just in case you need more oomph to your tentacle sex story

[sheablue]

http://io9.com/detatched-octopus-arms-show-independent-awareness-1209041248

 

[Handley_Page]

http://io9.com/detatched-octopus-arms-show-independent-awareness-1209041248

Bearing in mind that an Octopus has no Central brain, I'm not surprised.
from Wiki:
Two-thirds of an octopus's neurons are found in the nerve cords of its arms, which have limited functional autonomy. Octopus arms show a variety of complex reflex actions that persist even when they have no input from the brain.[11] Unlike vertebrates, the complex motor skills of octopuses are not organized in their brain using an internal somatotopic map of its body, instead using a nonsomatotopic system unique to large-brained invertebrates.

 

[sr71plt]

I was hoping for something a bit more kinky.

 

[Handley_Page]

I was hoping for something a bit more kinky.

Well, there's the plot bunny core, at the least.

 

[MatthewVett]

I wonder what the grant proposal was like. "I'd like to dismember an octopus, and then try to hurt its severed limbs."

 

[Bramblethorn]

I wonder what the grant proposal was like. "I'd like to dismember an octopus, and then try to hurt its severed limbs."

If you're designing machine intelligences, knowledge like this can be very useful. Want to create a walking robot that can still limp along when damaged? Or a robot that can work both autonomously and under direction of a human or a smarter program?

Work like this certainly does need strong justification. Octopuses are very intelligent animals, and by my understanding cephalopods are the only invertebrates that get the same protections as vertebrates under UK laws on animal research:

http://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2012/3039/regulation/3/made

 

[sheablue]

I wonder what the grant proposal was like. "I'd like to dismember an octopus, and then try to hurt its severed limbs."

I was thinking the same thing! "I'd like to prove something's intelligence by hurting it to the point that it is able to tell me it's hurt."

 

[PennLady]

I remember a friend of mine said his favorite episodes of "Iron Chef" involved octopuses, because then the food could fight back. Lobsters, too, I guess.

 

[Handley_Page]

I wonder what the grant proposal was like. "I'd like to dismember an octopus, and then try to hurt its severed limbs."

I was thinking the same thing! "I'd like to prove something's intelligence by hurting it to the point that it is able to tell me it's hurt."

The piece did say it was anaesthetised.

 

[elfin_odalisque]

Bearing in mind that an Octopus has no Central brain, I'm not surprised.
from Wiki:
Two-thirds of an octopus's neurons are found in the nerve cords of its arms, which have limited functional autonomy. Octopus arms show a variety of complex reflex actions that persist even when they have no input from the brain.[11] Unlike vertebrates, the complex motor skills of octopuses are not organized in their brain using an internal somatotopic map of its body, instead using a nonsomatotopic system unique to large-brained invertebrates.

No! I just read something in the NYT that said we shouldn't eat octopi because they're more intelligent than humans. Wouldn't take much!

 

[Handley_Page]

No! I just read something in the NYT that said we shouldn't eat octopi because they're more intelligent than humans. Wouldn't take much!

Given the row about Syria, I'm tempted to agree with you.

 

[MatthewVett]

No! I just read something in the NYT that said we shouldn't eat octopi because they're more intelligent than humans. Wouldn't take much!

I wonder why "eating" appears to be worse than "killing for no good reason at all." There are lots of animals that are killed without moral outrage, but when they're eaten, there's much more noise. Reminds me of the Greeks and the Callatians from Herodotus.

"For if there were a proposition put before mankind, according to which each should, after examination, choose the best customs in the world, each nation would certainly think its own customs the best. Indeed, it is natural for no one but a madman to make a mockery of such things. That this is how all men think about their customs one can see from many other pieces of evidence and from the following case in particular. Darius, during his own rule, called together some of the Greeks who were in attendance on him and asked them what would they take to eat their dead fathers. They said that no price in the world would make them do so. After that, Darius summoned those of the Indians who are called Callatians, who do eat their parents, and, in the presence of the Greeks (who understood the conversation through an interpreter), asked them what price would make them burn their dead fathers with fire. They shouted aloud, “Don’t mention such horrors!” These are matters of settled customs, and I think Pindar is right when he says, “Custom is the king of all.”"