Re: planets

Barry Garcia wrote:
>
> grandsir@natlab.research.philips.com writes:
> >
> >        There still could be life deep in the seas or in caverns, where
> >the
> >climatic changes are less tremendous. But for sentient life that would
> >be something else... And also, Earth lived tremendous climatic changes
> >(more tremendous than the last glaciation) and life found a way to
> >adapt, so who knows...
>
> I've heard that  octopuses  (whats the plural anyway? ) in particular are
> extremely smart. I remember an experiment where they put a crab in a jar,
> and put it in an octopus tank. The octopus of course got the crab (the lid
> was off). Then they tried the experiment again, this time with the lid to
> the jar screwed on. The octopus actually figured out how to open the jar.
        I already saw that experiment. It's particularly impressive (even if I
feel a little sorry for the crab :) ).

> I've heard that octopus can also learn by watching other octopus, how to
> do that trick. Another thing was, they put Astro turf (a bristly plastic
> carpet type stuff) on the rims of Octopus tanks so they dont crawl out of
> their tanks to go exploring). Maybe in several million years we could have
> sentient Octopuses? :)
        I don't think we'd need several million years to have sentient
octopusses. I think that octopusses are already sentient in that they
'think' (whatever they think). Of course, I suppose their thinking is
rather primitive, but they are able to solve very complex problems,
sometimes rather abstract, their eyes are as complex as ours and their
brain capacity is comparable. For me, they are at the edge of becoming
as sentient as we are, maybe like our ancestors (homo abilis? I don't
remember much about anthropology).

--
        Christophe Grandsire

        Philips Research Laboratories --  Building WB 145
        Prof. Holstlaan 4
        5656 AA Eindhoven
        The Netherlands

        Phone:  +31-40-27-45006
        E-mail: grandsir@natlab.research.philips.com