[LINK] Two notes on Paul the soccer-better octopus

[rfmcdonald]

The National Post reports that PETA wants to free Paul the Octopus.

With the World Cup final just days away, PETA wants Sea Life to release Paul to protected waters off of the south of France.

“Octopuses are among the most intelligent of invertebrates. They are capable of complex thought processes, have short and long-term memories, use tools, learn through observation, have different personalities and are particularly sensitive to pain,” PETA said.

The organization contends that Paul’s high level of cognition renders him able to feel suffering. Hence, they claim, it would be cruel to keep him in permanent confinement.

A spokeswoman for Sea Life told AFP life in open water would be dangerous for the octopus because he is acclimatized to living in captivity:

“Animals born in captivity are used to being fed and have no experience finding food by themselves.”

One might recall other celebrity marine animals who have grown up in captivity and fared poorly on the open seas. PETA wouldn’t want Paul to end up like poor Willy, would they?

Besides, if our beloved mystical mollusk is so sage, why shouldn’t he be allowed decide for himself what his future should be?

After all, his prognostication skills could earn him a lot of delectable mussels, not to mention legions of adoring fans.

Over at The Search, Douglas Todd explores how the sense of betrayal felt by many German fans at Paul's prediction of German defeat reflects general belief in ESP.

The intense interest the media and public have shown in Paul, the octopus that predicted Spain's defeat of Germany in Wednesday's World Cup game, reveals just how much belief people still have in psychic powers and the ability to foretell the future.

[. . .]

Millions of people were tuning into newscasts in which Paul, a rather large octopus residing in an aquarium in Oberhausen, would slowly choose to eat a piece of seafood from a container containing the flag of countries competing against each other in the World Cup. Paul's choices had gone well for Germany until this week.

Even though journalists often talked about Paul's World Cup predictions with big smiles on their faces, many people around the world took Paul's predictions seriously. Google has more than 5,800 articles on him. People were placing bets on his predictions. Argentinians wanted him killed because they thought he had cursed their team. The fact is many people take a lot of other para-psychological events with as much seriousness as Paul the octopus.

Canada, for instance, is seen as generally a “secular” country. But how does that explain that 57 per cent of Canadians believe in extra-sensory perception and 55 per cent in psychic powers?

In addition, 52 per cent of Canadians believe they have themselves experienced precognition – an ability to tell the future.

Me? I don't believe in ESP or PETA, I do believe that cephalopods are relatively smart, and I think that Paul would be quite happy being catered for in his protected marine aquarium, saved from predators (like people). I also don't think soccer would be relevant to water-dwelling intelligences only capable, I suppose, of playing handballs.