4 ms·

Not only short lifespan (some live four years), but all species die after laying eggs or after the eggs hatch so there can only be genetic transfer of informati

Not only short lifespan (some live four years), but all species die after laying eggs or after the eggs hatch so there can only be genetic transfer of information like the social insects, ants and termites. There would need to be some evolutionary leap to have them survive longer than required now or extraordinary genetic engineering ala Children of Time.

andrewflnr 2y ago
Not necessarily. You could, in principle, have the information transfer happen via octopuses in their community that aren't laying eggs yet.
- stevenwoo 2y ago
  That could be true. But all of the ones I've seen in nature documentaries lay their eggs at approximately the same time which probably were the most interesting to document for laypeople not representative of all these. The four years number popped in my head from this one example, where she tended her eggs for four years but lives about seven years total. Given the length of brooding I would assume these do NOT lay their eggs at the same time like some sort of cicada multiple years cycle. The counter argument is these are solitary animals, so we would need to find a social version of these that do not lay their eggs at the same time, I'd like to see that in the next nature documentary! https://www.mbari.org/news/deep-sea-octopus-broods-eggs-for-over-four-years-longer-than-any-known-animal/ https://www.mbari.org/news/deep-sea-octopus-broods-eggs-for-...
  - andrewflnr 2y ago
    Yeah, evolving social behavior is a prereq. We're doing speculative biology, not real biology. :) The idea might be, if they lay eggs at 3 years old, then the 2 year olds do the teaching. But by the time they can do that, I bet it's not that hard to lose the brood-until-you-die behavior either.
  - yencabulator 2y ago
    Even if there was an "egg-laying season", there could be a generation in-between that is not yet ready to lay eggs, that then teaches the newborns. Staggered lives, minimal overlap with direct parent, but still passing cultural heritage as a village.

andrewflnr 2y ago

Not necessarily. You could, in principle, have the information transfer happen via octopuses in their community that aren't laying eggs yet.

stevenwoo 2y ago
That could be true. But all of the ones I've seen in nature documentaries lay their eggs at approximately the same time which probably were the most interesting to document for laypeople not representative of all these. The four years number popped in my head from this one example, where she tended her eggs for four years but lives about seven years total. Given the length of brooding I would assume these do NOT lay their eggs at the same time like some sort of cicada multiple years cycle. The counter argument is these are solitary animals, so we would need to find a social version of these that do not lay their eggs at the same time, I'd like to see that in the next nature documentary! https://www.mbari.org/news/deep-sea-octopus-broods-eggs-for-over-four-years-longer-than-any-known-animal/ https://www.mbari.org/news/deep-sea-octopus-broods-eggs-for-...
- andrewflnr 2y ago
  Yeah, evolving social behavior is a prereq. We're doing speculative biology, not real biology. :) The idea might be, if they lay eggs at 3 years old, then the 2 year olds do the teaching. But by the time they can do that, I bet it's not that hard to lose the brood-until-you-die behavior either.
- yencabulator 2y ago
  Even if there was an "egg-laying season", there could be a generation in-between that is not yet ready to lay eggs, that then teaches the newborns. Staggered lives, minimal overlap with direct parent, but still passing cultural heritage as a village.