Why so many lobsters references in AI?

Accelerando is a near-future to post-Singularity science-fiction novel that follows three generations of one family as humanity transitions from late-stage capitalism into a radically transformed, post-human civilization dominated by artificial intelligence, uploads, and machine economies. The novel is structured as a sequence of interconnected stories that track the accelerating pace of technological change—so fast that human institutions, values, and even biological cognition struggle to keep up.
One of the early and most memorable elements is the appearance of uplifted lobsters. These are real crustaceans whose nervous systems are scanned, modeled, and partially emulated by advanced technology. Through this process, lobsters—normally simple biological organisms—are effectively turned into sentient or semi-sentient digital entities capable of participating in economic and informational systems. They become minor but symbolically powerful characters in the story’s emerging post-human ecosystem.