These fuckin' things could SO easily be what replaces us after humanity goes extinct. They only have TWO thing that prevents them from being fully sapient, and that's their short-ass fuckin lifespans + them dying after they mate. Which means every goddamn octopus starts from scratch with no help from their parents.If octopuses ever evolve to not do this (which is perfectly likely as their kind constantly adapts, changes and evolves) they would instantly be on a rapid path to sapience. Because NOW they can build their knowledge, they could afford to get much much smarter because all that investment in a complex brain won't just go to waste. NOW evolution would strongly push them toward long-term parental care, as NOW all their intelligence actually has somewhere it can contribute to outside of one individual octopus. They can actually support each other now. The dominant evolutionary strategy for them would instantly start selecting for longer lives and long term parental care that causes an explosion in octopus intelligence and a complex society. That's all that's needed really. I don't see them ever evolving speech anytime soon, but they could easily develop writing.Also completely independent from the sapience discussion. . .these motherfuckers absolutely MIGHT evolve to live on land. A lot of them already come onto land frequently in tide pool areas and they can make it decently far inland. They just need...>to gradually spend more and more time on land taking advantage of unique food opportunities and lack of predation (in specific places) on land.>get better at staying on land for longer and longer periods as a result>i doubt they'd ever evolve to breathe air, but their gills are the only part of their body that actually needs to stay wet. literally just evolve a way to keep the gills constantly wet with internal fluids and they can be fully terrestrial nowGod I wish we had land octopuses they'd be so goddamn cool and i can so easily see it happening
>>5139863>evolve to not do this (which is perfectly likelyevery male that doesn't die after breeding is a drain on the food supply available for females and young. Also big ones will sometimes eat little ones, so males dying also removes predators from the environment of the young. I think it's maybe not so likely. Pic is cool though, very wizardly vibe.
>>5139866I looked this guy up after posting, found a good video of it https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SsLkU_3U5hU
octopuses don't exactly use tools but they're clever about manipulating objects. Imagine one day they learn to make sharp-ass fuckin' knives/spears from whatever rock/ocean material and figure out how to become the hunters rather than the hunted. They could probably kill animals much larger than them. It's only a matter of time....
>>5139863Do you think octopuses just evolved to suicide by mating on accident? It exists because it's beneficial.
>>5140005yeah sure it's beneficial whatever. it could still easily evolve to go away, for you see, it's also simultaneously NOT very beneficial. because it causes die in the organism
We could help them along with selective breeding
>>5140016Yes, after humanity goes extinct and a million years later when octopuses revive us with advanced technology they'll view humans as total bros
3rd reason octopus will never evolve sapience: they're glass builds heavily reliant on perfect environments. Nothing large enough with a large brain will ever evolve into shallower waters or fresh water to make it to land
>>5139863>They only have TWO thing that prevents them from being fully sapientAnon, they ARE sapient. The biggest thing holding them back from creating advanced civilization is that if you live under water you can't make fire, and fire is the base of the tech-tree so it becomes really hard to ever get past the stone age. The other big issue is that they're not social. You could have an intelligent advanced civilization where reproduction kills one of the parents, so long as you've got a collection of other people in the community that can maintain information collectively. Though there are a few places in the world where octopus have been seen living in (relatively) high densities where they display more social behavior than expected.
>>5141029>Anon, they ARE sapientThe fact that you and many others don't understand the difference between the words sapient and sentient and keep using them interchangeably, pisses me the FUCK off. LEARN what words mean motherfucker
