3 ms·
A female octopus will try to eat the male octopus, so the intelligence is not at empathy or morality levels.
by kaxllca 2y ago
A female octopus will try to eat the male octopus, so the intelligence is not at empathy or morality levels.
- ceejayoz 2y agoEmpathy/morality isn't necessarily a requirement for intelligence, nor are the definitions of either easy to nail down.
- webkike 2y agoOkay, but maybe they deserve it? Hard for me to tell since I’m not an octopus
- drooby 2y agoThe males die shortly after mating.. it's hypothesized that the males may even offer their body as nutrition...as a way to maximize their offspring's success. So this adds another layer of wtf. Doesn't really help moralize human behavior though.
- IG_Semmelweiss 2y agoNaybe a way for sustainable farming? Breed octopuses, take the dead males who succesfully bred, and offer their meat with zero harm to the animal.
- micromacrofoot 2y agoare you sure? maybe they feel really bad about it after
- VoodooJuJu 2y ago[flagged]
- lenerdenator 2y agoTo be fair, it's not at the empathy or morality levels of humans that a lot of people consider "smart", either. As for the female octopus trying to eat the male octopus, did I ever tell ya the one about my ex wife? Huh? Huh? crickets
- ChrisMarshallNY 2y agoI was reading a fairly forgettable SF series, where one of the alien species is this giant centipede, that switches between “cooperative,” mode, and “competitive” mode. When “cooperative,” they are your best buddy. When “competitive,” you are fresh meat. And you can’t tell when they switch.
- ChrisMarshallNY 2y agoThe Oatmeal talks about the male Angler fish: https://theoatmeal.com/comics/angler https://theoatmeal.com/comics/angler
- mellavora 2y agoIt is hard to extend morality between species. The idea of parents sacrificing themselves for their children seems to resonate as highly moral, and is also a common pattern in biology. But how it plays out, from humans where the male can provide more by continuing to live and "hunt/protect/teach"-- but at the risk that the "hunt/protect" might end his life, to spiders where (some species) the male gives his body to provide nutrition for the child, well, who am I to say which is more moral?
- roughly 2y agoOh man, wait till you hear what humans do to each other.