Telo, ktoré myslí

Na tretie ráno Chiara pripravila nový experiment. Položila malý akrylový labyrint na dno nádrže. V strede bol kúsok krabieho mäsa. Steny boli priehľadné, ale cesta bola zložitá: dve pravé zákruty, jedna ľavá a malá bránka, ktorá sa otvárala len z jednej strany.

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 sledovala z rohu. Chiara ustúpila.

Pasta watched from her corner. Chiara stepped back.

To, čo Polly videla ďalej, bolo niečo, čo ešte nikdy nevidela.

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

Pasta vyslala dve ramená smerom k labyrintu skôr, než jej telo opustilo roh. Dve ramená sa pohybovali nezávisle. Jedno išlo cez vrch. Druhé sa plazilo po podlahe, do labyrintu. Ramená nekoordinovali. Pohybovali sa, akoby boli samostatné bytosti.

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.

Toto nebola metafora. Chobotnica má asi päťsto miliónov neurónov. Dve tretiny z nich nie sú v centrálnej mozgu. Sú v ramenách. Každé rameno má svoj vlastný nervový systém. Každé rameno dokáže riešiť jednoduché problémy samo.

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.

Prvé rameno prešlo chodbou. Narazilo na prvú zákrutu, zastavilo, ohmatalo a otočilo sa. Druhé rameno našlo malú bránku a preskúmalo jej okraje. Prvé rameno dosiahlo bránku zvnútra. Druhé rameno tlačilo zvonka. Bránka sa otvorila.

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.

Rameno vzalo krabie mäso.

The arm took the crab meat.

Pasta sa nepohla zo svojho rohu.

Pasta had not moved her body from her corner.

Chiara, sledujúc video, pomaly vydýchla. "Ramená získali jedlo. Vyriešila chobotnica labyrint, alebo ho vyriešili dve ramená spolu? Nevieme."

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 sa pozrela na Pastu. Chobotnica sa pomaly natiahla, spojila svoje ramená a pritiahla krabie mäso k zobáku.

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

Existuje fráza, ktorú vedci používajú, keď nemôžu zaradiť tvora do kategórií, ktoré mali predtým, než ho stretli. Cudzia inteligencia. Polly si myslela, že je to poetické. Dnes to prehodnotila. Možno je to doslovné.

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.