Over the past two centuries, scientific and popular perceptions of octopuses in Europe and the UK have shifted radically. The revolting "devilfish" described by nineteenth-century whalers and merchants was transformed in the twentieth century by neuroscientists into a model for studying cognition. By the turn of the twenty-first century, octopuses had become sources of inspiration for soft robotics engineers, as well as philosophers and evolutionary biologists exploring the nature of mind and consciousness. These shifts in perception contributed to advocacy efforts for their inclusion in animal welfare legislation, culminating in the UK Animal Welfare (Sentience) Act (2022), which recognizes cephalopods and crustaceans as sentient beings.
This project examines the history of cephalopods (squids, octopuses, cuttlefish, and nautiluses) in European and British scientific and legal thought. It explores how new ideas about consciousness emerged from interspecies encounters between various human collectives and cephalopods, leading to a reassessment of ethical obligations towards nonhuman animals and the oceans more broadly. This research is grounded in the understanding that scientific knowledge, legal frameworks, and cultural imagination are intertwined in the history of human-animal relations. The interactions between these domains make and unmake notions of bodies and minds—whether human, nonhuman, or whirling in between.