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So octopuses are very intelligent, and very alien. Anyone who has even casually read or watched videos about them will know this. But their potential is cut sh
by Scapeghost 7y ago
So octopuses are very intelligent, and very alien. Anyone who has even casually read or watched videos about them will know this.
But their potential is cut short by their incredibly short lives (like 5? years at the higher end) which seem to be caused by a very bizarre self-destructive behavior after mating (starving themselves, eating their own arms), which in turn is caused by an "optic gland" and removing that gland completely eliminates that self-destructiveness and increases their lifespan.
It makes you wonder if that gland was artificially engineered into them.
The sci-fi nerd in me likes to think there is a cosmic conflict between axial-symmetry species and radial-symmetry species, which may be overall more common in the universe given how life evolves at the microscopic scale, and Earth was chosen to give apes a chance.
- TheGallopedHigh 7y agoIf it was engineered such that humans win out over octopuses, why not, just not include octopuses directly? Then again this wouldn’t Mae a good sci-fi novel...
- Scapeghost 7y agoBecause genocide would cause corresponding repercussions, of course. :) If you eliminate a radial intelligence somewhere they eliminate an axial intelligence somewhere. Roundabout hindering them is clearly allowed. It may even have been a compensation for the seemingly barren corner of the galaxy we're in.
- JumpCrisscross 7y ago> If it was engineered such that humans win out over octopuses, why not, just not include octopuses directly? The original limits were symmetrical. They just haven't yet noticed humans started living long enough to develop into a technological species.
- human20190310 7y agoIf I recall correctly, one theory is that octopuses are such voracious cannibals that a swift demise after reproduction evolved to keep them from eating the next generation.
- orange8 7y agoDid that evolution happen faster than it took the previous un-evolved octopuses to eat all their young?
- rangibaby 7y agoI guess so, because if the cannibals had won there would be no octopuses
- rusticpenn 7y agoThe cannibal octopi groups would have died out while the suicidal ones lived.
- Terr_ 7y agoIn regards to sci-fi, it sounds like the inverse of A Mote In God's Eye. Where [Spoiler Alert] the alien "Moties" had a biology that killed them if they went too long without mating.
- deleted 7y ago[deleted]
- zzzzzzzza 7y agothere's also a short story "love is the plan, the plan is death" that deals with similar themes (from an alien perspective)
- satvikpendem 7y agoIsn't that basically natural selection?
- dfischer 7y agoI think this is a plot in one of the new Star Trek discovery episodes in season 2. "The Sound of Thunder" if I believe.
- justinator 7y ago> But their potential is cut short by their incredibly short lives (like 5? years at the higher end) Like, even for giant octopus? How do they get so large, in such a short amount of time?
- Scapeghost 7y agoGoogle's info box for giant octopus confirms right away that, yes, they too live for 3-5 years.
- dragonwriter 7y ago> Like, even for giant octopus? How do they get so large, in such a short amount of time? Usual adult giant octopuses are similar (in weight) to 3 year old humans, so it's not really surprising they get that big over a 3-5 year lifespan.
- Aenyn 7y agoGiant squids are several times the weight of an adult human and also get that big over only a handful of years.
- justinator 7y agoAnd I'm guessing they start up a bit smaller too.
- 6gvONxR4sf7o 7y agoCheck out https://www.nature.com/articles/519498a https://www.nature.com/articles/519498a
- f2f 7y agoyou're going to love Peter Watts' "The Things": http://clarkesworldmagazine.com/watts_01_10/ http://clarkesworldmagazine.com/watts_01_10/ it's 1982's "the thing", from the perspective of the, well, thing :)
- Kaiyou 7y agoThere's actually a TV series which has the premise that humans fight octopuses. In space. It's called Gargantia.
- harel 7y agoIf that became a book or a film, I'll "consume" it.
- benplumley 7y agoNot exactly the format you're looking for, but that premise is exactly the story behind Alkaloid's excellent (imo) "Rise of the Cephalopods": https://alkaloidsom.bandcamp.com/track/rise-of-the-cephalopods https://alkaloidsom.bandcamp.com/track/rise-of-the-cephalopo...
- harel 7y agoJust as good! I used to listen to a lot of death metal as well as stuff like the Cardiacs and other 80s alt music. This feels like a combo of both.
- foobarian 7y ago> It makes you wonder if that gland was artificially engineered into them. There is a comment below by biztos imagining that if octopi lived longer, they would be the apex species that was failing to fight the climate change - in place of humans. Made me think that maybe they were at one point, and then the octopus civilization itself decided to "solve the problem" by engineering a shorter time-to-live into their species and preventing intelligent behavior :)
- deleted 7y ago[deleted]
- OGWhales 7y agoI believe octopuses is preferred over octopi