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If Humans Die Out, Octopuses May Have the Skills to Build the Next Civilization, Scientist Claims
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Octopuses are widely regarded as highly intelligent creatures, capable of problem-solving and tool use. If humans were to go extinct, could their intelligence evolve further to enable the development of a complex society or civilization? Let’s discuss how their unique biology and environment could shape a future with octopus-led innovation, collaboration, and adaptation.
Ugh. Prove it. It’s not like oceans are fully occupied by humans.
Octopuses only live for 2 years and never meet their parents, not great for building a civilization.
They only live until they’re four. Press x for doubt
While they are most certainly smart, there is a caveat: Female octopi die off after laying a clutch of eggs. They simply stop eating and waste away, so they can’t really pass on any knowledge as they are most likely dead once the young hatch.
No, they don’t. The lifespan of an octopus is too short. They live 1-5 years and die after mating. This prevents intergenerational learning unless you had very specific stressors cause alternating Parents/Caretakers.
Well, they’ve been here on earth a very ling time. Where are the octopus villages, tribes, or tech? Not like we were stopping them. I think some scientists need to rethink their life choices
They don’t live enough to do this. They also don’t pass down the knowledge they gain to their youth. Once an octopus reproduces, a process of rapid degeneration begins internally and they die off.
If scientist were able to genetically modify them so that process stops, then yes they could very well rule the world.
Makes you wonder if another specifics genetically modified them and dumped them here after a reign of terror lol
If only they lived long lives and had a way to pass knowledge between generations.
Nope, they are very intelligent, but way too short-lived; they had millions of years of head start, and yet here we are. Also repost? I swear I saw the misleading title just days ago.
They have had that and access to the coast long before hunter gatherer humans existed and even until recently had the ocean to themselves to do whatever with as one of the smartest species by far there is.
Their main issue is that they don’t live long enough to pass on what little they learn to new generations.
Many intelligent birds aren’t quite as advanced, but they can and do teach generations which humans did them a solid once, and which ones threw rocks at them.
Also the lack of fire might be an issue, but not being able to condense knowledge is a fundamental block to developing tech.
They are not social creatures, so it is highly unlikely they will build a civilization.
Well they’ve been knocking around since the Jurassic age according to Google. That’s quite a long time, and I’m yet to see any advanced octopus technology.
Birds have a higher chance of doing this than octopi. Elephants too, though much less odds IMO.
Let’s splice them with Human DNA and make them populate a moon of Europa.
Why do humans have to die out for that? It’s not like we compete for territory.
nobody is stopping them from building a civilization and they have like 70% of the Earth’s surface
Raccoons are better suited. Octopuses are amazing, but unless we artificially bump their lifespan, or make them live in societies, they won’t be able to build a civilization. Unless ofc they already do in unknown cave systems deep underwater
Raccoons have opposing thumbs, still small lifespan, but they do have social groups, they live close enough to human cities to Unlock new resources.
I’d rather bet on Corvids to pick up the challenge
If octopi are so smart, why do they live in igloos?
They are hundreds of millions of years old. Why aren’t there underwater amusement parks? Uh? UH??
They’ll need to live longer than a year or three if they want that to happen.
Adrian Tchaikovsky explores this in his Children of Time series. Though the first book focuses on spiders.
Octopuses as a group have been around since the age of dinosaurs and have thus far failed to build any kind of civilization. On top of that, they aren’t even especially remarkable by mammalian standards, they’re just remarkable for being *at* mammalian standards while being a mollusk.
Could a distant octopus descendant eventually evolve into something that can build a civilization, given the right selection pressure? Sure. But you can say the same thing about about like 30% of mammals and a good number of birds, and they don’t have to deal with the intrinsic difficulties in advancing technologically underwater.
(I’d vote on raccoons, personally, if we’re banning primates. They’re clever and they’ve already got hands.)
Intelligent octopuses are a cool idea and fun to imagine in sci-fi. But that’s about the extent of it.
Will they need cult followers? Will there be war between the advanced evolutions of squids and octopus? Will black ink be exchanged?
All kidding aside, their intelligence and skills have yet to include the combination of materials to make new tools to solve their issues. That’s what we managed as a species (while creating new problems). I wonder just how long it would take for them to trigger that evolution to build civilization when humanity wipes itself out.
I’ve watched enough octopus behavior on youtube to believe this.
Scientists forget the simple fact you need fire to do that.
Octopoda have existed since the middle Jurassic, and have no adaptive immune system, a precursor adaptation for live birth. They are semelparous egg layers, and tend not to live very long.
Their real genius is adaptation to their environment, which is what has allowed them to persist over hundreds of millions of years. If they had a tendency to destructively adapt their environment to themselves, they’d have ceded their place to other cephalopods long ago.