I read that octopuses have myriad nerve endings in their limbs. There are in fact more nerve cells in an octopus’s limbs than in its brain, and each prehensile arm is also a nerve center, independent of the central brain in the animal’s head. It’s as though octopuses have small but autonomous brains at the end of each arm—which is to say that each one can act of its own volition. An octopus can, for example, both taste and feel with its arms, and some species even have photosensitive cells in their limbs, which give them some degree of vision. But what’s more; if you cut off an octopus’s arm,
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