As a certified octopus I can confirm that this fact is true. 🙃
this post was submitted on 09 Nov 2025
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Octopodes only live a couple years, and thank god. They would be the menace seen in sailors' imaginations if they just kept growing and learning.
Did no one notice the giant puddle of water between the tanks?
Last time I went to the aquarium there was a specialist on reef ecology talking about all the different species of animals on display and a woman in the group behind me loudly exclaimed "Wait, fish are animals?" so I'm going out on a limb and stating that I believe there's a considerable amount of overlap between the smartest of their species and the dumbest of ours when it comes to intelligence.
I went to school with a girl who swore the Bible was written in English, not translated... 🙄
Dumb humans survive and are taken care of, dumb octopi dont survive. Most animals dont have the luxury of keeping every mutation and variation viable for survival.
If it was possible to start fire under water octopi would have tribal civilizations already.
Did you know that the correct pluralization is octopuses or octopoda, not octopi? This is because the -pus ending in octopus to es from the Greek word for foot, not prom latin.
The correct GREEK plural, which would be used because the root of octopus is Greek, could be octopodes. However, in ENGLISH, people have started intuiting that words ending in “~us” pluralize to ~i, akin to cacti. So this isn’t about being a Latin rule, it’s actually an emergent English rule.
After a little research it seems that "octopi" and "octopuses" have been so widely used and for so long, that dictionaries include all of them as correct. An article from merriam webster even pragmatically suggests referring to them as "octopodes" is less likely to be understood so stick with "octopi" or "octopuses". Also, it seems "octopodes" is the more widely accepted "correct" plural and "octopoda" refers to the genus.
But it's an interesting topic, i wish to subscribe to octopus etymology facts(or any interesting reads)
Octopussen.
Did you know that octopi has long been included in many dictionaries also?
Language is only half etymology and half vibes
And half of etymology is also vibes
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the correct pluralization is octopedophiles
Oh, shit, there's 7 more Epstiens?
Something smart enough to recgonize the people, what they mean, learn their schedule, and understand how to decieve them, is something that should not be kept in captivity for our amusement.
And they do all that with a CRIMINALLY short lifespan. 😟
https://octonation.com/octopus-lifespan/
"For example, the Common Octopus, Mimic Octopus, and Blue-Ringed Octopus live for around 12 – 18 months whereas the Giant Pacific Octopus can have a lifespan of 3-5 years!"
A lot of animals are capable of learning. More importantly they’re capable of feeling. They should not be exploited in the same way that octopi should not be exploited.
And especially should not be farmed or eaten alive for clicks on youtube. We have made significant progress as a society reducing the barbaric practice of eating shark-fin soup and other exotic animal products, and made great strides in ending torturing sea mammals in amusement parks. We have to add octopus to this list of things we now know better about.
Octopus have feelings and are higher animals with unique personalities and ways of experiencing the world. They are curious, they are intelligent, they dream and seem to show emotions in a variety of ways.
And our last common ancestor didn't even have a backbone. This fact alone should amaze us and give us hope for the greater universe - that we can share so much with something so very distant from us gives hope that if we ever do contact aliens, we might share more than we think.
Every animal can react to their environment, including avoiding predators. Not all of them do it perfectly, but it is a basic survival skill for mobile life forms.
In the wild an octopus often hides in a tight space to protect itself and wanders out to feed, then returns to their safe location afterwards. They avoid predators while doing so. Lots of animals will be less active when predators are out and about, or will be active during times where it is more difficult for the predators to hunt.
Yes, an octopus is a very clever animal but really we should stop killing them because we are absolutely crushing their populations.
It could also hide from predators in an aquarium where it will be brought food every day and get medicine from a veterinarian if it gets sick. An Aquarium is the safest place for the octopus to live, so why wouldn't it's survival instinct tell it to live there to hide from predators?
We should set up an experiment with an aquarium that allows the octopus access to the ocean. Do you really think the Octopus would run away from the aquarium where it's safe from predators and gets fed every day?
The stories I here about Octopi make them sound more like an intelligent creature we don't understand rather than "lots of creatures escape their cages to go hunting and then return before anyone notices. This is natural behavior for an animal."
Yes, the mind of an octopus is unknowable, and it could be just acting on instinct. It could also have some measure of sentience, and there is no way to really know. As such maybe we should err on the side of caution and not keep them in little pens for us to gawk at.
I do agree we need to respect them a lot more and make a much stronger public message that they're not food and certainly shouldn't be tortured and treated as inhumanely as we routinely do.
Yes, the mind of an octopus is unknowable, and it could be just acting on instinct.
As someone who studied a lot of neurology, I could make a very strong argument that much of our behavior, no matter how well-reasoned we think it is, no matter how complex it is, is actually also just a very sophisticated system for facilitating our instinctual needs. The brain has a very real tendency to post-hoc justify our decisions and actions so much that we never notice it, but if you start to explore it, you will realize really quick that a lot of what we do and think we're choosing to do, are just products of very basic wants.
This isn't to diminish either them nor us, only to say that whatever is going inside that incredibly ancient brain of theirs, it's still a lot like us and needs to be respected as such.
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Makes me think of Children of Ruin by Adrian Tchaikovsky. 😀
We’re going on an adventure
I love that series so damn much
Same, although I think the 1st book would have been better if it didn't focus so much on the humans for at least the first half of the book.
Like I think it would have had more impact if we were guessing what was happening off planet instead of 'seeing' it.
I hadn't considered this, but I think you're right. Imo it's the weakest of the three, but this may have changed my outlook. Also, talking in colours was a hard thing for me to read. Loved all three though regardless.
I'll never hear, or read, that phase the same again!
I, for one, welcome our eight appendage overlords
They're smart as individuals, but they don't have generational knowledge so we're safe. If they figure out how to reproduce without dying right away, we're in trouble.
If i was a multi Billionaire i would dedicate my vast wealth to building an Institute that breeds only the most intelligent octopi with each other.
They don't live so long, so generations go by fast. I bet we could speedrun evolution if we just put our money where our tentacles are.
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Ah, so an octopus is overqualified for the position of US President. Good to know.
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