Human social intelligence, and the associated ability to conceptualize the individuality, agency and mental state of other beings, provides us with an incredible capacity for empathy.

This capacity, however, is limited by our sensations, perceptions, and motor abilities. Technology, when catered to these elements of our behavior, can extend our capacity for empathy by interfacing humans with unique capabilities of information acquisition and movement. The ancient evolutionary path of the octopus in parallel to vertebrates has led to highly divergent cognitive and morphological characteristics.

These animals serve as an appropriate model for testing the potential for technology to augment our empathy. Octopuses will be given computer designed 3D printed behavioral tasks to complete. These tasks will be used to test theories of octopus sensation, perception, and 3 Sivitilli, Dominic 02704618803 cognition, and this information will be used to intuitively interface a human controller with the body of a virtual octopus in virtual reality (VR).