在看电影《我的章鱼老师》（英語：My Octopus Teacher）之前，我最熟悉的章鱼，是日本餐馆的一道菜。

(这部电影的中文维基百科介绍附在下面。)

其实，在这部电影放映之前，有一本书

The Soul of an Octopus

在疫情稳定期，我依然习惯蜗居。于是，下载了这本书的电子版，快快地看起来。（我对喜欢的书，恨不得一口气看完。）

(书的英文介绍附在下面。)

我想翻译书的介绍。不过，懒人自有懒办法。我找到了一篇关于章鱼的文章。请欣赏。

BBC关于章鱼的文章（双语）

The alien brains living on Earth

https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20140626-the-alien-brains-living-on-earth?referer=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.bbc.com%2Fukchina%2Fsimp%2Fvert_fut%2F2016%2F03%2F160329_vert_fut_the-alien-brains-living-on-earth

By Jason G Goldman

25th June 2014

章鱼：地球上的异形大脑

2016年3月29日

To look for aliens, most people peer towards the sky. But if you look down, you'll discover they already live among us.

These aliens have brains, like we do, but they're mostly inside their arms, and each arm acts as if it has a mind of its own.

I'm speaking, of course, of the octopus. This tentacled beast – along with its cephalopod relatives, the squid and cuttlefish – are some of the strangest, most alien creatures on our planet.

Scientists have a hard enough time getting into the minds of our nearest relatives, the apes and monkeys, let alone more distantly related mammals like dolphins or elephants. Octopuses? Forget about it. Our last common ancestor with the octopus was probably around 800 million years ago. So while we know they are capable of squeezing through holes the size of an inch, opening jars, and disguising themselves, there’s a great deal that mystifies us about how and why the octopus could develop a brain unlike that of almost any other intelligent creature.

Even the size of their brains is a matter of debate: estimates range from 100-500 million brain cells, depending on the species in question and who you ask. But everyone agrees that more than half of them are found within its eight arms. Humans, by contrast have some 85 billion neurons, most of which are inside our skulls.

与我们一样，这些外星人都有大脑，但主要在胳膊里[Yu：后面，作者用触手代替胳膊]，而且每条胳膊似乎都有自己的思维。

当然，我说的是章鱼。这种有触手的动物——以及它的头足纲近亲，包括鱿鱼和墨鱼——是地球上最古怪、最像外星人的物种。

就连与人类关系最近的物种(猿和猴子)，科学家都没能搞清楚它们的大脑结构，更不用说海豚和大象这些关系更远的哺乳动物了。至于章鱼？干脆忘了它吧。我们与章鱼最近的共同祖先大约生活在8亿年前。所以，虽然我们知道它们能从1英寸的小洞钻过去，能打开广口瓶，甚至能自我伪装，但却至今仍对章鱼何以进化出如此与众不同的大脑感到困惑——这种大脑几乎与任何一种聪明的生物都截然不同。

甚至连章鱼的大脑容量都存在争议：根据章鱼的种类和你询问的对象不同，其脑细胞据估计在1亿至5亿个。但所有人都认同一个观点：其中过半脑细胞都分布在章鱼的8个触手上[Yu: 8条胳膊上]。相比而言，人类拥有850亿个神经元，多数都位于颅骨内。

Each octopus arm contains some 40 million receptors, mostly along the rims of each sucker, which the octopus uses both for touch, as well as for detecting chemicals in a similar manner to our senses of taste and smell. Imagine what it would be like if the majority of your body were made of tongues, able to both touch and taste the entire world, and you might come a step closer to understanding life as an octopus.

As well as that, octopus skin is also studded with pigment-containing chromatophores, which the octopus can control to change its appearance. Aristotle noticed this thousands of years ago, writing: "it seeks its prey by so changing its colour as to render it like the colour of the stones adjacent to it." Aristotle also wrote "the octopus is a stupid creature," so he was only half right.

Each octopus arm acts as if it has a mind of its own, with its own intentions. Amputate one in a laboratory (octopuses can regenerate lost limbs, so this procedure is far less gruesome than it may seem), and it will continue to respond for an hour. It can crawl away, if it wants to. Or it can use its suckers to hold onto preferred objects, or to push repulsive ones away. And yet, despite eight independently operating arms, an octopus somehow manages not to tie itself into knots. How it manages to do this recently attracted the interest of Hebrew University neurobiologist Nir Nesher, and colleagues.

一只章鱼全身约有4000万个受体，多数都位于吸盘边缘，章鱼不仅会利用这种独特的器官触摸周围的物体，还能以类似于人类味觉和嗅觉的方式探测周围的化学物质。可以想象你身体的多数部位都由舌头组成，能够通过触觉和味觉感受整个世界，这样一来，你或许就能够更好地理解章鱼的生活。

除此之外，章鱼的皮肤还布满了色素体，因此可以改变自己的外观。亚里士多德早在几千年前就注意到这种现象，他写道：“它捕食时会改变颜色，让自己与周围的石头融为一体。”但亚里士多德还写道，“章鱼是一种愚蠢的生物，”所以，他只说对了一半。

章鱼的每一条触手似乎都有自己的思维和意识。在实验室中对一条触手进行截肢(章鱼的触手可以重生，所以这一过程远不像你想象得那么可怕)，这条触手在接下来的一个小时内仍然能对外界刺激作出反应。如果愿意，它甚至可以爬走。它还可以利用吸盘抓住自己喜欢的东西，或者推开不喜欢的东西。然而，尽管8条触手各行其是，但章鱼似乎不会因此而把自己打成结。这种能力最近引发了希伯来大学神经生物学家尼尔·内舍尔(Nir Nesher)及其同事的兴趣。

They found that suckers automatically reject octopus arms, which explains how they avoid becoming a tangled mess. That said, octopuses sometimes eat each other, which means they don't always avoid octopus arms. How come? Nesher found that octopuses were able to distinguish their own amputated arms from arms that had been detached from other octopuses. So while it makes sense for octopus arms to avoid latching onto other octopus arms in general, it also makes sense for an octopus to sometimes ignore that rule, if it means enjoying a tasty meal. It also reveals at least a basic sort of self-recognition: octopus arms are okay to eat unless they're your own.

Nesher also discovered that while their arms act independently, an octopus can override the simpler reflexes of its arms when it needs to. In that way, the octopus gets the best of both worlds: the arms can carry out most of their business on their own, leaving the animal to use higher-level decision-making processes only when necessary. It's an extremely efficient solution.

In some ways, parts of the human nervous system work in a similar way. When we feel a painful sensation, like a sharp pinprick or a flame on our finger, we instinctively pull away. That reflex, which comes from the spinal cord, allows us to avoid danger even before our brains have registered the pain in the first place. But the kinds of decisions that octopus arms can make on their own, such as those involved in self recognition and in complex camouflage, appear to be more complex than simple pain avoidance.

他们发现，吸盘可以自动避开章鱼的触手，这也可以解释它们为什么不会乱成一团。尽管如此，章鱼有的时候还是会捕食同类，也就是说，它们并不会随时避开章鱼触手。这是如何做到的呢？内舍尔发现，章鱼可以区分被截肢的触手来自自己还是其他章鱼。所以，虽然章鱼触手通常都能够避开其他的章鱼触手，但当它们想要享受美味时，也可以忽略这条规则。另外，这至少也表明章鱼具备基本的自我意识：只要不是自己的，它们也可以食用章鱼触手。

内舍尔还发现，虽然章鱼的触手可以各行其是，但这种动物仍然能在需要的时候忽略其触手发出的较为简单的条件反射。通过这种方式，章鱼便可“两全其美”：每条触手多数时候都可以自行其是，只有在必要的时候，才会动用这种动物的高级决策流程。这是一种效率极高的方案。

从某种意义上讲，人类的神经系统也遵循了类似的模式。当我们感觉痛苦时(例如手指感到尖锐的刺痛和火烧时)，我们便会本能地抽回手指。这种条件反射来自脊髓，通过这种方式，我们便可在大脑尚未记录这种痛苦前避开危险。不过，章鱼触手自行制定的决策(例如自我认知和复杂的伪装)似乎比简单的疼痛规避更加复杂。

In addition to their arms’ impressive sensory abilities, cephalopods have excellent vision, are capable of generating and storing both short-term and long-term memories, and can learn new tasks with ease. Some species even use tools. Wild octopuses have been repeatedly observed using rocks to block entrances to their dens, and some have been seen using empty coconut shells as temporary shelters. In aquariums, octopuses are known to play. Octopuses have basic personalities, showing individual differences in traits such as aggression or engagement. They can even learn how to solve problems by watching other octopuses, and they can remember the solutions, without practice, for several days.

Sometimes they turn their considerable minds to human beings, forming opinions of who they do and don’t like. It is unwise to get on the wrong side of an octopus: those grudges can last a surprisingly long time. Writer Sy Montgomery tells the tale of Truman, an aquarium octopus, in Orion Magazine: "Using his funnel, the siphon near the side of the head used to jet through the sea, Truman would shoot a soaking stream of salt water at this young woman whenever he got a chance. Later, she quit her volunteer position for college. But when she returned to visit several months later, Truman, who hadn’t squirted anyone in the meanwhile, took one look at her and instantly soaked her again."

除了触手具备的惊人感应能力外，头足类动物还拥有一流的视觉，能够产生和存储短期及长期记忆，而且可以轻松学会新的任务。有些头足类动物甚至能够使用工具。多次有人看到野生章鱼用石头堵住自己巢穴的入口，甚至还有人见过章鱼使用空椰子壳作为临时避难所。在水族馆里，章鱼以好玩而著称。它们拥有基本的个性，在攻击性和互动性方面表现出个体差异。它们甚至能够通过观察其他章鱼学会解决问题的方法，即使好几年不练习仍然可以记住这些方法。

它们有时还会把大量的注意力转移到人类身上，形成自己的喜好。惹恼章鱼可不明智：它们心中的积怨持续的时间之久远超你的想象。作家赛伊·蒙哥马利(Sy Montgomery)曾经在《猎户座杂志》(Orion Magazine)上讲过一个名叫杜鲁门(Truman)的水族馆章鱼的轶事：“只要一有机会，杜鲁门就会用自己的漏斗(也就是头部旁边用于穿过海水的虹管)[Yu: “穿过海水”应该翻译成“在海水中飞速向前”]向这位年轻女士喷射一股盐水[Yu: 海水]。后来，那位女士考上大学，不再担任志愿者。但当她几个月后回来参观时，这段时间再也没有喷射过任何人的杜鲁门看到了她，就立刻向她喷出水柱。”

All of that is particularly impressive considering these animals only live for a few years. Primates, dolphins, elephants, parrots, and all the rest of the so-called "smartest animals" can live for decades. It makes sense that evolution would have driven us to develop long-term memory skills, and the ability to form and retain reputations of other people, since an ability to remember our friends and enemies could be crucial for survival. But that's not true of cephalopods, who are not social (except when it comes to mating) and who live such brief lives.

So how did this squishy sea-dwelling invertebrate evolve an intelligence that rivals the smartest among spined animals? Andrew Packard, a University of Edinburgh physiologist, thought that it was because the invertebrate cephalopods evolved in an environment in which they had to compete with fish for food, and in which they had to avoid being eaten by the same predators as the fish. Since the ancestors of fish and octopuses were eaten by the same predators, chief among them the ichthyosaurs ("the dolphins of Mesozoic seas," says Packard), in many ways they were subject to the same selection pressures. Fossil records reveal similar migration patterns among cephalopods and fish. They first emerged in relatively shallow, coastal waters, moved into more oceanic, deeper seas, and eventually came back to recolonise the coasts.

If Packard is right, then the alien octopus's vertebrate-like intelligence was the result of having to survive in a world dominated by vertebrates. Our own ancestors' behaviour, in a way, unintentionally pushed cephalopods to create themselves in our own image. Or as Packard mused, "it is as if natural selection had favoured those that took the line, ‘if you cannot beat them, join them.'"

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由于这种动物的寿命只有短短几年，所以这一切都令人格外惊奇。灵长类动物、海豚、大象、鹦鹉和其他所谓的“最聪明的动物”都能生存好几十年。这也可以解释它们为何进化出了长期记忆能力，以及塑造和保留他人形象的能力，因为能够记住朋友和敌人对于生存而言至关重要。但头足类动物却并非如此，除了交配外，它们没有社交生活，而且寿命非常短暂。

那么，这种黏糊糊[Yu: 滑滑的]的海洋无脊椎动物是如何进化出如此高的智商，甚至足以匹敌最聪明的脊椎动物的呢？爱丁堡大学生理学家安德鲁·帕卡德(ANdrew Packard)认为，这是因为无脊椎头足类动物生活的环境必须要与鱼类争夺食物，而且还要避开与鱼类相同的捕食者。由于鱼类和章鱼的祖先都要面对相同的捕食者，主要是鱼龙(帕卡德说，这是“中生代海洋中的海豚”)，所以从很多方面来看，它们也要受制于相同的选择压力。化石记录也表明，章鱼跟鱼类有着相似的迁徙状态。它们最早出现在浅滩和沿海水域，随后进入大洋和深海，最后又回到海岸居住。

如果帕卡德所言属实，那么像外形人一样的章鱼之所以具备与脊椎动物相似的智商，是因为它们生活在一个脊椎动物主导的世界中。从某种意义上讲，我们人类祖先的行为在无意间促使章鱼按照我们的想象塑造了它们自己。或者，按照帕卡德所说，“‘如果战胜不了它们，那就加入它们。’自然选择似乎很偏爱那些遵循这一原则的物种。”

请访问 BBC Future 阅读 英文原文。

（责编：友义）

附维基百科对电影的介绍：

《我的章鱼老师》（英語：My Octopus Teacher）是2020年Netflix原创纪录片，由皮帕·埃利希和詹姆斯·里德执导，讲述了电影工作者克雷格·福斯特于南非一处海藻林跟拍野生普通章鱼的故事。影片荣获第93届奥斯卡金像奖最佳纪录片奖。

2010年，克雷格·福斯特开始在南非开普敦福尔斯湾一偏僻地区的海藻林练习自由潜水^[2][3]。当地靠近开普半岛的西蒙镇^[4]，寒冷的大西洋本格拉寒流流经此地^[5]。

潜水的时候，福斯特注意到一只好奇的小章鱼，开始长达一年的日常跟拍，得以探寻章鱼休养生息的地方。他表示，自己和小章鱼的这段经历深刻影响到他的人生。小章鱼福斯特的感情日渐增长，同时要抵挡带纹长须猫鲨的袭击。尽管处处提防，小章鱼还是在一次攻击中失去了触手，要撤回到巢穴中恢复，幸好新触手花了三个月重新长出来了。之后面对鲨鱼攻击，小章鱼可以灵活应对，巧妙地吸附在鲨鱼的背部。后来，小章鱼和一只大章鱼交配，产出大量卵子。最终小章鱼在照看卵的时候自然凋亡，鲨鱼叼走了她的尸体。

小章鱼给福斯特这段老师般的关系，让他认识到生活的脆弱及人与自然的关系^[6]。之后儿子跟随他当自由潜水者，在大学学习海洋生物学，父子关系更为深厚。

附书的英文介绍：

THE SOUL OF AN OCTOPUS:
A SURPRISING EXPLORATION INTO THE WONDER OF CONSCIOUSNESS
Atria Books, ISBN 1451697716

http://symontgomery.com/soul-of-an-octopus/

From the Publisher:

In this astonishing book from the author of the bestselling memoir, The Good Good Pig, Sy Montgomery explores the emotional and physical world of the octopus—a surprisingly complex, intelligent, and spirited creature—and the remarkable connections it makes with humans.

Sy Montgomery’s popular 2011 ORION magazine piece （https://orionmagazine.org/article/deep-intellect/）, “Deep Intellect,” about her friendship with a sensitive, sweet-natured octopus named Athena and grief at her death, went viral, indicating the widespread fascination with these mysterious, almost alien-like creatures. Since then she has practiced true immersion journalism, from New England aquarium tanks to Mexico and French Polynesia, pursuing these solitary shape-shifters. With a central brain the size of that of an African grey parrot and neural matter in each of its eight arms, octopuses have varied personalities and intelligence they show in myriad ways: endless trickery to get food and escape enclosures; jetting water playfully to bounce objects like balls; and evading their caretakers by using a scoop net as a trampoline and running around the floor on eight arms. But with a beak like a parrot, venom like a snake, and a tongue covered with teeth, how can such a being know anything? And what sort of thoughts could it think?

The intelligence of dogs, birds, and chimpanzees was only recently accepted by scientists, who now are establishing the intelligence of the octopus, watching them solve problems and deciphering the meaning of their color-changing camouflage techniques. Montgomery chronicles this growing scientific appreciation of the octopus, but also tells a love story. By turns funny, entertaining, touching, and profound, The Soul of an Octopus ultimately reveals what octopuses can teach us about the nature and consciousness of the mind.

Sy Montgomery is a naturalist, documentary scriptwriter, and author of twenty acclaimed books of nonfiction for adults and children, including the memoir The Good Good Pig, which was a national bestseller. The recipient of numerous honors, including lifetime achievement awards from the Humane Society and the New England Booksellers Association, she lives in New Hampshire with her husband, border collie, and flock of chickens.

附：Deep Intellect (英文pdf)