Re: planets

Patrick Dunn wrote:
> Wouldn't there need to be some kind of pressure on the octopus
> population
> in order to select for intelligence?
I don't think that anybody is sure exactly why humans developed human
intelligence at exactly the time they did.  Selection pressure, side
effect of heat demands on the brain from walking upright on savannahs,
there are all kinds of ideas out there but nobody knows for sure.

> Hmm.  Maybe we should uplift
> octopuses; then we wouldn't be so lonely.
Maybe they're already "uplifted."  Perhaps they are the great
neglected marine intelligence; everybody's busy channeling dolphins to
produce tarot card sets, but the octopodes quietly construct their
philosophies and poetry....

>  I wonder what octopus speech
> would be like.  Do they make noises?
Dunno.  But I learned recently that if we were not fully bipedal, we
wouldn't be able to talk like we do.  A quadruped needs to co-ordinate
breath with pace, in order to inflate the thorax so it has the
necessary rigidity at the necessary times.  A biped can breathe
however it wants to.  Chimps cannot produce the kinds of airstreams
necessary for oral speech because their breathing follows a quadruped
pattern -- they're only semi-bipedal at best.

Ed


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