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.
this post was submitted on 09 Nov 2025
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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.
I, for one, welcome our eight appendage overlords
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 pluralization is octopedophiles
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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This is true. Many aquariums with octopuses have to do something similar.
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'll never hear, or read, that phase the same again!
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 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.
But "dumb" animals are fine? We even torture them because we think they taste cool.
Where did I say that?
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.
The octopus went back to it's tank after getting a snack. That's at least some indication the octopus likes living there.
You are assuming the octopus prefers living out in the wild where it could be eaten alive. Who are you to assume what an animal wants?
Are you currently living in some kind rectangular structure where you have easy access to regular meals? Why are you living in this way and assuming an octopus wouldn't also prefer this? There's nothing preventing you from leaving the rectangular structure you're currently living in and going out into the wilds and fending for yourself to survive. Why don't you do the thing you're assuming the octopus wants to do?
Or it was too much of a gamble raw-dogging it in the outside.
All it did was take the 'bait' it was aware of and sneak back undetected. For all we know it might have been exploring, but in a hostile environment you wouldn't venture far...
Yes and for all we know the octopus prefers to live in a place safe from predators, always has lots of food, and a veterinarian on call when it gets sick.
It's strange to me that people anthropomorphize animals to make big claims about the animal wanting to live in the wild. If you release that animal into the wild it will likely be eaten or starve but everyone assumes the animal wants that based on absolutely nothing.
Why not anthropomorphize animals under the assumption they would want a life similar to what we've built for ourselves? Is the validity of the complete guesses about what an animal wants gain merit based on how holier than thou the people making the guesses are acting about it?
Bottom line, the octopus is safer living in an aquarium with ample food than living in an environment amongst predators where food is scarce. All animals have a strong survival instinct (they'd be extinct if they didn't) so it's more likely if an animal could communicate it's preferences, it would choose the option where it's most likely to survive for a very long time, so it would choose living in an aquarium.
If a I scream "RELEASING ANIMALS INTO THE WILD IS MURDER!!!!!!" over and over again, does that make it a more compelling argument?
Yes, but it's even more simplistic (I agree with wider principle you're using).- The octopus is going to have a much harder time finding a safe environment.
Unless it stays in the fish aquarium - I wonder why it didn't just stay where the tasty snacks were? (Not wanting to project a humanised, moralistic perspective on its delightfully naughty behaviour...).
Maybe there was nothing good to hide under, perhaps?
Who are you to assume what an animal wants?
I am quite literally not doing that. I am saying "we don't know so we shouldn't imprison it for our amusement" which does not strike me as a very extreme statement.
I mean the government stops you - at least in the USA. If they find you, no matter how 'responsible' you are being they will charge you/kick you off the land unless you "own" the land.
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.
Quite right, they should be given badges and guns.
Eight guns.
Four. They need the others to move around!
They can walk on guns.
This octopus, let’s give him boots, send him to North Korea
The simpler explanation seems to be that the guard was eating the fish, and blamed the octopus when people noticed something was amiss.
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/c98qnyLLTPg
Apologies for the ear bleeding voice over. But it is a cool video showing an octopus opening a jar.
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Octopus for President!! (more brains)
They literally couldn't be worse than what we've got
Ah, so an octopus is overqualified for the position of US President. Good to know.
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