Summary

Octavia is still surprisingly strong when Montgomery returns, visitors watch her in fascination as she does different tasks simultaneously with her eight arms. The problem of where to keep Kali has become an urgent one, and her barrel has been temporarily moved because a tank-mate needs medication. It is difficult to predict how an octopus will react to living with others. Montgomery saw an octopus herding a group of crabs with its tentacles in Mexico, and all the creatures involved were unexpectedly calm. She wonders if the octopus is running a crab ranch, or if it sedated them with its ink. Octopus ink contains an eye irritant that may also block oxytocin as well as dopamine. Peter Godfrey-Smith, a philosopher, wonders if perhaps octopuses do not have a self in the way that humans do because their neurons are...