UKH

I commend this wonderful and very touching film about a scientist living with an Octopus in his home, to be reshown soon.  I have watched it twice.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0007snt

The thought arose - if you constructed a mobile aquarium in which an octopus could live for a period in reasonable comfort and whose motion and direction the octopus could control with its tentacles do you think that it would in fact start to do this to exercise its curiosity about the world outside its little car and thus drive about purposefully?

The idea of also adding hands or external tentacles appeals, Waldoes if you like.

any biologists out there?  no intention to hurt a captive octopus, just perhaps give it some enhanced life experience

I'll have a look at that, ta for the link.  I read "Other Minds: The Octopus, the Sea, and the Deep Origins of Consciousness" by Peter Godfrey-Smith a few months ago and mostly really enjoyed it.

On the subject of cephalopods operating machines, here's a short story you might enjoy:
http://www.talkingsquidsinouterspace.com/Baxter-Sheena5.html

thanks, I'll read that this afternoon.

I thought the same.

Total internal reflection would severely limit its view of the world unless you build a hemispherical view window for the octopus to put its head in.

the one in the film seemed not to be hindered watching TV with the family or keeping a beady eye on them

Sure - he can look straight out but you need a much wider field of view for safe driving.

Sci-fi but explores  octopus 'uplift'   https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/40376072-children-of-ruin   (Tchaikovsky studied zoology and psychology  ) 

So.......   A mobile aquarium on a treadmill ?

I guess it would be great working behind a bar pulling pints.

Bloody octopuses coming over here and taking all our jobs.

my first thought was 'it should be octopi!' but actually 'octopuses' is correct.

I think it would definitely go rollabout

I think it would.  They appear to be clever and inquisitive. 

Have you seen the video of one escaping from a jar?  There a quite a few videos on YouTube of various experiments.  

That was shown in the TV programme that is to be shown again.  What really amazed me too was the playing with a film canister by pulling it into a water jet so it would bob right round the tank to be caught and put into the jet, as if playing.  I used to have a horror of creatures like that as a kid but now I just see how beautiful and charming they are, if you aren't food.

that's it, exactly!

The treadmill could also be inside a cargo plane taking off.

That looks interesting, always up for a read.

Octopus intelligence is a fascinating topic, as it must have arisen in parallel to ours: Our last common ancestor clearly had very little in terms of brains. Clearly they can use tools they have not been exposed to before to solve novel problems (e.g. open jars with various locks on the lid). Whether they have innate curiosity or a theory of mind that is generally seen as a hallmark of mammalian or bird intelligence is doubtful. At least I have not heard of any results in that direction. I assume that their intelligence, whatever it is, works very differently to ours.

CB

I admit to 100% luck on my part in being grammatically correct.

How many tickles do you give to Mr Octopus to make him laugh?... (first answer in your head is fine)...

Ten tickles...

I’ll get my Rab... 

I haven't seen it yet, but I will make sure I do, thanks.  

the documentary I linked is quite poignant as it makes the point that despite having all the curiosity and apparent playfulness, ability to use tools etc, they have such a very short lifespan, which isn't normally linked with such intelligence.

I found its playing with an object in a water jet really amazing

it did make me wonder if anyone has done research into this.   The sequence of the octopus carrying away its 2 coconut halves to use as a hide/roly poly "pod" shows they seem to have an analogy for what we call inventive imagination.

Yes, I think it would. The same was done with rats recently. They had a mini car and could drive it around, apparently with intention.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/world-us-canada-50167807/rats-taught-how-to-d...

I've an excellent Jacques Cousteau book on squid and octopus I picked up at a charity shop a couple of years ago. They were doing lots of experiments with them in the 70s.

I suspect this is a necessary part of any intelligence.  It's just a matter of how much.

Perhaps animals tend to seem less intelligent than they are, because their hardwired objectives are much more limited.

Similar to a Neon Meate Dream probably.

very old-school, like the Faber Best SF of the 1960s!

I enjoyed it

I was a bit surprised that it's nearly 20 years old.  Eek.  Could have sworn it's brand new.

He is quite an old-fashioned writer though I guess.  Glad you enjoyed it..