There’s a theory out there that octopus actually came from a comet sent from the cosmos. (Octopi? Apparently its plural usage is actually Octopodes because it’s a Greek-derived word, not Latin.) Given the complexity of their genetic code (33,000 more protein-coding genes than us) and intelligence, it seems likely to these scientists that there is no way our planet could have made them. The scientific paper discussing this is actually much more detailed than just octopodes being aliens, and goes into the concept of alien viruses “seeding” our planet from comets, which would explain some of the more impossible seeming genetic differences we find in nature.
Either way, it’s a fun thought.
The reason this all came to mind is because I recently watched My Octopus Teacher again. This fantastic documentary is simple, moving, and in many ways a plea against speciesism. It follows the documentarian Chris Foster during a lost moment in his life, where work has ceased having much meaning, and his bearings have become unmoored (tough not to have sea metaphors in here), but befriending an octopus sets him on a path regaining traction in his life.
Without spoiling too much of the plot I’ll break it down. Our protagonist finds himself without purpose, burnt out from years of work and feeling like life is devoid of meaning or direction. He’s a new father and doesn’t know how to raise his son. Taking a break from it all he begins diving everyday in a kelp forest near his home in Cape Town, South Africa and there meets an octopus. Through a series of bizarre and fascinating moments he slowly begins making contact, and in a once-in-a-lifetime way, befriends the octopus. The journey has harrowing and touching moments, deadly run-ins with predators where our videographer has to sit and watch as his new found tentacled friend is stalked and attacked, believing (I think correctly) that it is not our job to interfere with the process of the natural world. Punctuating the movie are scenes of strange connection and sparking insight, where he realizes just how much this creature is considering him and the world around them. I won’t give the ending away, but if you like nature documentaries, or just a straightforward moving mid-life crisis tale, with stunning sea visuals, then check it out.
I need to sidebar briefly though on just how impressive an octopus truly is.
The internet is full of wild stories about how intelligent octopodes might actually be. There’s the story of Otto, a German octopus, who after being trained to squirt water at visitors to his aquarium realized that instead, he could squirt water at the 2,000 watt lights overhead and effectively shut down the power. His handlers believe that Otto was doing this because of the commotion it would cause afterwards. Basically, he liked watching everyone freak out.
Then there’s Inky, a New Zealand octopus, whose prison break reads like a dime store Escape From Alcatraz tale. Inky was a rescue brought in from the sea by fishermen and quickly became an aquarium favorite, beloved by the staff for his ingenuinty and curiosity. It really came as no surprise that once he’d reached adulthood, Inky was able to figure out how to get out. He removed his aquarium lid, slipped over the edge, and shimmied up a wall, out a window, and down a drainpipe to get back out to the sea.
There are other, unverified stories out there too. One of an octopus disliking his food, a spoiled shrimp, and making the effort to leave his enclosure, find his handler, and chuck the unedible shrimp at them. Plenty of anecdotes from biologists expressing their expressive and emotional qualities and given the amount of these stories, if even half are semi-true, it’s evidence enough of just how actually unique these creatures are.
It’s really no shock that these animals could be considered aliens.
A few other great facts. They can fit through anything as long as their beak, the only hard part of their body, can fit. Their tentactles act as independent brains, containing neuronal clusters, which basically provides each tentacle the ability to act indepdendently. And wildest of all, they can edit their RNA at will. This article offers a great explanation of why this is so much more stunning than RNA shifts made by other creatures (ourselves included.)
This last fact is one of the big drivers in the not-from-this-world theory because they are the only species capable of doing this specific editing on our planet. After reading about them though, whether alien or not, they are among the most fascinating living things on our planet. Intellectual, short-lived, curious, sea geniuses.
And where does that leave us?
I think people enjoy giving one off respect. “Well yes, this animal is smart, we should be more considerate of these ones.” And in comes the species hierarchy. I’ve dealt with a lot of different animals in my life and on the surface they can come across as idiotic, lacking basic foresight, simple creatures easy to scare and quick to judge as being somewhat “less” than sentient. But give it time and most creatures reveal a side of themselves that contain some pretty profound emotional abilities.
All of them have lived and survived in a world where survival for them is paramount. We’ve been lucky enough to step out of that pyramid. No longer are we sitting around a fire at night worried that something might just snatch us for its next meal. We are apex in a way that makes it pointless to even consider anything like a “predator.” The only times a human is in danger from the natural world these days (short of meteorological situations) is when they’ve chosen to put themselves in the situation. Not counting those that live in a cabin somewhere like rural Alaska, most city dwellers day to day interactions include taking a video of a rat stealing a piece of pizza from the trash.
But the big problem with this is that if you don’t regard this natural world, our roots, then you lose something integral about what makes us, us. We are still mammals, driven by rote genetic wiring. Our emotional fears stem from those early humans who were sitting by that fire, afraid of that lion, somewhere out on the savannah. We’ve made leaps and bounds in the physical realm, giving ourselves shelter and digital comforts, but the internal genetic coding we contain hasn’t changed much from those early days.
And for me, that’s a dangerous problem. I’m sure I could go off on a tangent here on how this affects amost of our political situations, interpersonal skills, and general outlook in our communities as well, but I’ll keep this specific to the natural world. We need a level of connection back to the “wild” lands we came from, if not for the pure and simple reason, that it keeps us tethered to the idea that we are living with our planet’s ecosystem, not in a concrete jungle outside it. It helps the broader perspective. And just maybe it might also help us not kill each other.
I’m not saying you need to go out and camp in the woods for 30 days, living on wild berries, but what I am saying is it might help to take a moment to consider our natural world. When you’re sitting down to eat, remembering that really, this meal sustaining you is all still intertwined back to the land, and the bugs, microbes, and animals all intermingled to keep that food growing. I don’t know about you, but I enjoy a good, fresh meal. I’d rather not live off Soylent for the rest of my life or some lab-produced variation.
Sorry for the preaching on this, but I think it’s an important one to keep bugging people about. We’ve got a complex and delicate balance here and it’s easy to forget about it.
Maybe step outside and switch off for a moment.