Re: planets

On Tue, 21 Dec 1999, wayne chevrier wrote:
>>From: Patrick Dunn <tb0pwd1@...>
>>
>>
>>Wouldn't there need to be some kind of pressure on the octopus population
>>in order to select for intelligence?  Hmm.  Maybe we should uplift
>>octopuses; then we wouldn't be so lonely.  I wonder what octopus speech
>>would be like.  Do they make noises?
>
>Octopodes (Greek plural :)) and other cephalopods don't make noises,
>but can change colour, pattern and texture of their skin, and use
>this to communicate emotion and for camouflage. this could develop
>into a visual language, they could also have a sign language based on
>movement of their tentacles.
>They already build shelters and cuttlefish (who are social) are known
>to display one pattern one way and another the other,i.e. blank toward
>a higher ranking male and courting display toward female on the other
>side.
There was a passably well-written book with an awful cover published
by Baen called "Mother of Demons" that was essentially a
first-contact story set on a planet of cephalopods, who communicated
by changing color and had the obligatory sci-fi wierd mating
practices, and, since this was a Baen book, armies and other miltary
paraphenalia.

Worth reading, just don't read the copy on the back of the book.

  --
Sylvia Sotomayor
sylvia1@ix.netcom.com
http://home.netcom.com/~sylvia1/