Hobotnica koja je nadmudrila bravu

Dvije tisuće šesnaeste godine, osoblje malog akvarija na Novom Zelandu jednog je jutra zateklo pravu zagonetku. Jedna od njihovih hobotnica, naizgled sasvim obična životinja po imenu Inky, tijekom noći je nestala iz svog bazena. Staklo nije bilo razbijeno, a alarm se nije oglasio. Jednostavno je nestala, kao da nikada nije ni bila ondje.

In two thousand sixteen, staff at a small aquarium in New Zealand arrived one morning to a genuine mystery. One of their octopuses, an unremarkable looking creature named Inky, had vanished from his tank overnight. No glass had been broken and no alarm had sounded. He had simply gone, as if he had never been there at all.

Pretraga zgrade naposljetku je dala odgovor. Pod okriljem mraka, Inky je otvorila poklopac vlastitog bazena, a zatim je svoje tijelo odvukla preko hladnog poda do uske odvodne cijevi koja vodi u ocean. Provukla se unutra, prošla kroz nekoliko metara uske metalne cijevi i iskliznula u otvorenu vodu. Do izlaska sunca bila je slobodna.

A search of the building eventually supplied the answer. Under cover of darkness, Inky had prised open the lid of his own tank, then dragged his body across the cold floor to a narrow drainpipe leading to the ocean. He squeezed inside, worked his way through several metres of tight metal piping, and slid out into open water. By sunrise, he was free.

Ono što ovu priču čini izuzetnom nije samo ono što je Inky učinila, nego ono što otkriva o tome kako hobotnica razmišlja. Hobotnice se ubrajaju među najinteligentnija živa bića, s otprilike jednakim brojem neurona kao pas. Većina tih neurona ne nalazi se u glavi, nego duž krakova, pa svaki krak djeluje s određenim stupnjem samostalnosti, gotovo kao da ima vlastiti um.

What makes the story remarkable is not just what Inky did, but what it reveals about how an octopus thinks. Octopuses rank among the most intelligent creatures alive, with roughly as many neurons as a dog. Most of those neurons sit not in the head but along the arms, so each arm operates with a degree of independence, almost as though it had a mind of its own.

Ta se inteligencija iznova i iznova pokazuje u laboratorijima diljem svijeta. Hobotnice su naučile odviti poklopce staklenki kako bi došle do hrane, riješile su zadatke u više koraka kako bi izvadile komad rakovice iz zaključane kutije, pa čak i prepoznavale pojedine istraživače po izgledu, prskajući vodom one koje očito nisu voljele.

This intelligence turns up again and again in laboratories worldwide. Octopuses have learned to unscrew jar lids to reach food, solved multi step puzzles to retrieve a piece of crab from a locked box, and even recognised individual researchers by sight, squirting water at the ones they seemed to dislike.

Unatoč tome, znanstvenici još uvijek ne mogu u potpunosti objasniti kako je takva inteligencija nastala. Razvila se na posve zasebnoj grani života, davno prije nego što su postojali sisavci, pa se susret s umom hobotnice čini najbližim što na Zemlji možemo doživjeti susretu s izvanzemaljskim umom.

Even so, scientists still cannot fully explain how such intelligence arose. It evolved along an entirely separate branch of life, long before mammals existed, which is why meeting an octopus's mind feels like the closest thing on Earth to meeting an alien one.

Inky nikada više nije viđena. Akvarij ju je naposljetku zamijenio drugom hobotnicom, no ovaj put su se pobrinuli da iz novog bazena bude znatno teže pobjeći.

Inky himself was never seen again. The aquarium eventually replaced him with another octopus, though this time they made sure the new tank would be considerably harder to escape from.