The Body That Thinks

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.

Asubuhi ya tatu, Chiara aliandaa jaribio jipya. Aliweka njia ndogo ya akriliki kwenye sakafu ya tanki. Kulikuwa na kipande cha nyama ya kaa katikati. Kuta zilikuwa wazi, lakini njia ilikuwa ngumu: kona mbili za kulia, moja ya kushoto, na lango dogo lililofunguka kutoka upande mmoja tu.

Pasta watched from her corner. Chiara stepped back.

Pasta alitazama kutoka pembe yake. Chiara alirudi nyuma.

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

Kile Polly aliona kilikuwa kitu ambacho hakuwahi kuona hapo awali.

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.

Pasta alituma mikono miwili kuelekea kwenye njia kabla mwili wake kuondoka kwenye kona. Mikono hiyo miwili ilihama kwa uhuru. Moja ilipita juu. Nyingine iliteleza sakafuni, ndani ya njia. Mikono haikushirikiana. Ilionekana kana kwamba ni viumbe tofauti.

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.

Hii haikuwa tashbihi. Pweza ana takriban neurons milioni mia tano. Theluthi mbili haziko kwenye ubongo wa kati. Ziko kwenye mikono. Kila mkono una mfumo wake wa neva. Kila mkono unaweza kutatua matatizo rahisi peke yake.

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.

Mkono wa kwanza ulipita kwenye korido. Ulifika kwenye kona ya kwanza, ukasimama, ukahisi, na ukageuka. Mkono wa pili ulipata lango dogo na ukajaribu kingo zake. Mkono wa kwanza ulifika kwenye lango kutoka ndani. Mkono wa pili ulisukuma kutoka nje. Lango likafunguka.

The arm took the crab meat.

Mkono ukachukua nyama ya kaa.

Pasta had not moved her body from her corner.

Pasta hakuwa amehamisha mwili wake kutoka kwenye kona yake.

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."

Chiara, akitazama video, alipumua polepole. "Mikono ilipata chakula. Je, pweza alitatua njia, au mikono miwili ilitatua pamoja? Hatujui."

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

Polly alimwangalia Pasta. Pweza alijinyosha polepole, akakusanya mikono yake pamoja, na kuvuta nyama ya kaa kwenye mdomo wake.

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.

Kuna msemo ambao wanasayansi hutumia wanaposhindwa kuweka kiumbe kwenye makundi waliyokuwa nayo kabla ya kukutana nacho. Akili ya kigeni. Polly alifikiri ilikuwa ya kishairi. Leo alibadilisha mawazo yake. Inaweza kuwa halisi.