Fwd: Octopuses

[Brent Meeker]

So the government of the UK agrees that consciousness is implied by intelligent behavior.

Brent

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From Daniel C. Dennett:  In the United Kingdom, the law regarding cruelty to animals draws an important moral line at whether the animal is a vertebrate: as far as the law is concerned, you may do what you like to a live worm or fly or shrimp, but not to a bird or frog or mouse. It's a pretty good place to draw the line but laws can be amended, and this one was, Cephalopods, were made honorary vertebrates, in effect because they, unlike their close mollusk cousins the clams and oysters, have such strikingly sophisticated nervous systems. 

MJB