A revelation!


I've decided that the purpose of Virtual Reality is to turn humans into cephalopods.


Some of the Cephalopods have a marvelous organ called the Chromatophore, that is essentially a display built into their skin. They can create luminous, quickly changing, colorful images all over their bodies. It is absolutely enthralling to watch them flash each other, seemingly communicating in a visual language. People have to use their hands to craft images, so there is an imbalance between our ability to see and our ability to visually create. Not so for some of the squid, octopi, and most especially the charming cuttlefish. These creatures are also stunningly smart. They should serve to excite fantasies of truly alien intelligence on Earth far more readily than whales or dolphins.


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