Octopuses are so smart we cook them and then throw them away without even eating them.
After picking up litter today, I had to look up octopus intelligence. The first link on my search was titled Octopuses may be so terrifyingly smart because they share humans’ genes for intelligence.
Why did I have to look up their intelligence? Because of how disgusted I felt, but didn’t feel I felt disgusted enough. Below are three increasingly horrifying pictures of a garbage can in the northwest corner of Washington Square Park. Here is the can, as usual, overflowing with garbage, nearly all single-use plastic.
As I got closer, I saw people had thrown away a lot of food. The clear containers come from a place a couple blocks away that just opened. The amount of single-use garbage coming from the place is sickening, literally. I almost never see anyone eating something prepared at home or just fruit.
Here’s a closer look at one of the plastic containers, still with plenty of food or doof:
Getting closer, we can see amid the garbage and plastic, two octopuses bought and not eaten. The salad bar at the store is self-serve. They must have served themselves these once-intelligent now-dead creatures.
I guess they figured killing them wasn’t enough. They also had to throw them away.
Quoting the article I linked to above:
Octopuses are brainy creatures with sophisticated smarts, and now scientists have uncovered a clue that may partly explain the cephalopods’ remarkable intelligence: Its genes have a genetic quirk that is also seen in humans, a new study finds.
Even though octopuses aren’t closely related to animals with backbones, they nonetheless demonstrate behavioral and neural plasticity that’s similar to that of vertebrates, Fiorito added. “These animals, like mammals, have the ability to adapt continuously and solve problems,” and this evidence hints that the similarity may originate at the genetic level, he said.
Sad that we prefer to pay to acquire them dead, then throw them away.
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