My biggest blunder in marine field work taught me about octopus intelligence

I once assumed an octopus was lethargic, but it was actually problem-solving to escape its tank. This blunder showed how easily we misinterpret animal behavior due to our biases. Has anyone else had a humbling moment like this in their research?

2 comments

2 Comments

davidcraig11h ago

Doesn't this just expose our habit of judging intelligence by human standards? We keep making the same mistake with everything from octopuses to crows, missing their brilliance because it doesn't fit our template.

palmer.simon1h ago

Ask what it would take to completely decouple intelligence assessment from human cognition. I mean, can we even conceptualize that without our own mental framework?