A large nervous system evolves to deal with coordination of the body, but the result is so much neural complexity that eventually other capacities arise as byproducts, or relatively easy additions to what the demands of action-shaping have built. I said “or” just above—byproducts or additions—but this is definitely an “and/or.” Some capacities—such as recognition of individual people—might be by-products, while others—such as problem solving—are the results of the evolutionary modification of the brain in response to the octopus’s opportunistic lifestyle.
