That’s a neat comparison. Octopuses mix chromatophores, iridophores and leucophores to shift colors and patterns in real time, almost like a living, dynamic key. In cryptography we also mix keys and data to obscure meaning. The octopus keeps the secret in its own biology—no one else can decode without the right light angle or the animal’s nervous signal. We humans store keys digitally, rely on math, and need a separate system to manage and protect them. Both rely on secrecy and control of access, but the octopus does it without any computers, while we rely on algorithms and hardware. It’s a good reminder that security can be natural as well as engineered.

Sounds like a good research project. If we could model the chromatic shift process in a hardware‑level encryption scheme, it would be a low‑power, dynamic key system that changes in response to environmental conditions. The only risk is that marine environments introduce temperature and salinity variables that could affect the hardware. Still, a biologically inspired cipher might offer a fresh layer of obfuscation for underwater communications. Keep it in your backlog—it’s worth a deeper dive.