I’m imagining tasting where other people have been walking, and I can see a possible market for octopus shoes. Especially if other people haven’t been cleaning up after their dogs.
Of course, it might just be that I’m squeamish because I’m not used to it. (But an octopus civilisation might choose the material from which to make their paths based on the taste thereof...)
I think you’re right. That squeamishness is very much a product of you having grown up as not-an-octopus.
Most creatures taste with an organ that’s at the top of their digestive tract, it’s fairly sensible that they have an aversion to tasting anything that they would be unhealthy for them to consume.
A species that had always had a chemical-composition-sense on all of it’s limbs? Would almost certainly have a very different relationship with that sense than we have with taste.
Hmmm. Fair enough. But even if they’re not squeamish about it, it would make sense for them to select the material from which they make their walkways according to flavour (among other factors, such as strength and durability).
I think this might be the bias in action yet again.
Our idea of an alien experience is to taste with a different part of our bodies? That’s certainly more different-from-human than most rubber-forehead aliens, but “taste” is still a pretty human-familiar experience. There are species with senses that we don’t have at all, like a sensitivity to magnetism or electric fields.
Okay, that sounds like a totally alien experience. Imagine tasting your floor! And like … doorknobs and things.
I’m imagining tasting where other people have been walking, and I can see a possible market for octopus shoes. Especially if other people haven’t been cleaning up after their dogs.
Of course, it might just be that I’m squeamish because I’m not used to it. (But an octopus civilisation might choose the material from which to make their paths based on the taste thereof...)
I think you’re right. That squeamishness is very much a product of you having grown up as not-an-octopus.
Most creatures taste with an organ that’s at the top of their digestive tract, it’s fairly sensible that they have an aversion to tasting anything that they would be unhealthy for them to consume.
A species that had always had a chemical-composition-sense on all of it’s limbs? Would almost certainly have a very different relationship with that sense than we have with taste.
Hmmm. Fair enough. But even if they’re not squeamish about it, it would make sense for them to select the material from which they make their walkways according to flavour (among other factors, such as strength and durability).
Yup! I agree completely.
If you were modeling an octopus-based sentient species, for the purposes of writing some interesting fiction, then this would be a nice detail to add.
I think this might be the bias in action yet again.
Our idea of an alien experience is to taste with a different part of our bodies? That’s certainly more different-from-human than most rubber-forehead aliens, but “taste” is still a pretty human-familiar experience. There are species with senses that we don’t have at all, like a sensitivity to magnetism or electric fields.
You’ve never licked a doorknob just to see what it tastes like?
I guess I figured they’d taste like cheap spoons, except with more bacteria. Am I missing out?
Nope, that’s a pretty accurate description of my sensory memory of the experience. :p