Prepare to have your mind blown re: octopi and other cephalopods. (Unless you’re already in the know.)
Exhibit A is this article in Orion Magazine, which I read some time ago, and which knocked my brain on its ass with its central premise that octopi seem to think and experience things in a way that’s totally different than all other intelligent animals. And there’s the fact implicit in that phrase–intelligent animals. Turns out they are crazy intelligent, in ways that are so foreign to our normal ways of seeing things, that if you didn’t know any better, you’d think they are just these weird blobby ink-shooting things. Like a more-well-coordinated jellyfish or something. But did you know they can walk on land? That’s small potatoes compared to what you’ll find in that Orion article.
But that’s kinda long, and will take a little reading…before you go there, watch this video (a.k.a. Exhibit B):
So much for weird blobby ink-shooting things. More like scary-intelligent probably-alien super-creatures that we may never fully understand (until they develop the technology to finally rule over us, and teach us their advanced cephalopodian ways).
Now go read that Orion article and feel uncomfortable and maybe even a little inferior. (I did.)
Or first watch this octopus walking on land if you haven’t seen it before:
Now go figure out how to camouflage and re-shape yourself to match literally any object around you in an instant, before you ever pre-judge an animal as “dumb” just because you don’t understand it.