会思考的身体

第三天早上，Chiara 设立了一个新的实验。她在水箱的地板上放了一个小型的丙烯迷宫。迷宫中心有一块蟹肉。墙壁是透明的，但路线很复杂：两个右转，一个左转，还有一个只能从一侧打开的小门。

On the third morning, Chiara set up a new experiment. She placed a small acrylic maze on the floor of the tank. There was a piece of crab meat at the centre. The walls were clear, but the route was complex: two right turns, a left, and a small gate that opened from one side only.

Pasta 在她的角落里观察着。Chiara 退后了一步。

Pasta watched from her corner. Chiara stepped back.

接下来 Polly 看到的事情是她从未见过的。

What Polly saw next was something she had never seen before.

Pasta 伸出两只触腕，朝迷宫的方向伸去，而她的身体还留在角落里。两只触腕独立行动。一只从上方越过，另一只沿着地板滑入迷宫。触腕没有协调，它们移动得像是两个独立的生物。

Pasta sent two arms toward the maze before her body left the corner. The two arms moved independently. One went over the top. The other slid along the floor, into the maze. The arms did not coordinate. They moved as if they were separate creatures.

这不是比喻。章鱼有大约五亿个神经元。三分之二不在中央大脑，而是在触腕里。每只触腕都有自己的神经系统，可以独立解决简单问题。

This was not a metaphor. An octopus has about five hundred million neurons. Two thirds of them are not in the central brain. They are in the arms. Each arm has its own nervous system. Each arm can solve simple problems on its own.

第一只触腕穿过走廊。它遇到第一个转弯，停顿，感知，然后转弯。第二只触腕找到了小门，测试它的边缘。第一只触腕从内部到达小门，第二只触腕从外部推开。小门打开了。

The first arm threaded the corridor. It hit the first turn, paused, felt, and turned. The second arm found the small gate and tested its edges. The first arm reached the gate from inside. The second arm pushed from outside. The gate opened.

触腕拿到了蟹肉。

The arm took the crab meat.

Pasta 的身体仍然没有离开角落。

Pasta had not moved her body from her corner.

Chiara 看着视频，慢慢地呼出一口气。“触腕拿到了食物。是章鱼解开了迷宫，还是两只触腕一起解开的？我们不知道。”

Chiara, watching the video, exhaled slowly. "The arms got the food. Did the octopus solve the maze, or did the two arms solve it together? We do not know."

Polly 看着 Pasta。章鱼慢慢地伸展，聚拢她的触腕，把蟹肉拉到嘴边。

Polly looked at Pasta. The octopus stretched slowly, gathered her arms together, and pulled the crab meat to her beak.

当科学家无法将某种生物归入他们之前的分类时，他们会用一个词来形容它：外星智慧。Polly 以前觉得这很诗意。今天她改变了看法。也许这是真的。

There is a phrase scientists use when they cannot fit a creature into the categories they had before they met it. Alien intelligence. Polly had thought it was poetic. Today she revised that. It might be literal.