Earlier quoted context omitted.
It’s 6th for me, and no adverts. How does this get monetised?
Something something pr0n
Paige, no!
Octopuses caught on camera throwing things at each other
161–170 of 194 posts
Re: Octopuses caught on camera throwing things at each other
#162I wonder what it's like to be an octopus. What kind of thoughts do they think? How do they perceive the world?
One the one hand, there are eight hands to consider...
Re: Octopuses caught on camera throwing things at each other
#163Or maybe, they are actually quite intelligent. Just because they're not bipedal, land dwelling mammals doesn't mean they don't hold some intelligence of their own kind.
Re: Octopuses caught on camera throwing things at each other
#164Or maybe, they are actually quite intelligent. Just because they're not bipedal, land dwelling mammals doesn't mean they don't hold some intelligence of their own kind.
I think they are already regarded as one of the most intelligent creatures we know about.
Re: Octopuses caught on camera throwing things at each other
#165Or maybe, they are actually quite intelligent. Just because they're not bipedal, land dwelling mammals doesn't mean they don't hold some intelligence of their own kind.
I think they are already regarded as one of the most intelligent creatures we know about.
Yes, but that's like regarding your child as special in their own way. I think there's way more than that.
Re: Octopuses caught on camera throwing things at each other
#166Reminds me of that video of the two fish spitting sand at each other. One is digging a hole by spitting sand out, the other spits sand back at it just because. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ePH6Ky0YWZA
Apparently that's common behavior for all fish, not just octopuses. Here are 2 fish, each borrowing their own tunnel, and each spitting on each other, trying to block opponent's tunnel:
Re: Octopuses caught on camera throwing things at each other
#167Earlier quoted context omitted.
Yep. I've kinda gone full circle on this. My view now is that it's increasingly difficult to say exactly what makes humans special or unique, if anything [0]. So it's overly anthropocentric to deny the possibility that other species have analogous experiences of the world, or experiences which are richer than ours, or completely inconceivable by us [1]. Sure, there will be people that do anthropomorphise the octopus'…
> it's increasingly difficult to say exactly what makes humans special or unique, if anything Absolutely. Every trait previously thought unique to humans that I know of have been found in animals, such as deduction, tool making, intra-species warfare, delayed gratification, play, language, dialects, curiosity, mischieviousness, boredom, empathy, grieving rituals, etc etc. The only generic trait missing from my bingo…
Generally speaking, very good points, just wanted to point out that writing is extremely recent in evolutionary terms. Modern humans are at least 10,000 years old (but more typically viewed as 100,000 years old). Writing, as you probably know, is only around 3000 years old (at least that we can verify).
Re: Octopuses caught on camera throwing things at each other
#168As a counterpoint, The Atlantic ran an interesting article[0] yesterday suggesting that it's not really clear what the Octopuses' aims are when they do this, and that we do really like to anthropomorphize them. [0] - https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2022/11/gloomy-o...
They really like being anthropomorphized.
There can be little doubt that octopodes routinely complain to one another about cephalopodizing humans. The low number of appendages, inflexible bodies, and erratic self-destructive behaviour make it hard to take seriously any claims that homo sapiens is anything but the simple-minded, land-bound, fear-driven mammal it appears to be.
Re: Octopuses caught on camera throwing things at each other
#169Earlier quoted context omitted.
It may be a word like "fishes". I once saw "fishes" on an interpretive sign at an aquarium and some folks were mocking such and obvious grammatical error. Turns out, "fish" is the correct way to refer to multiple individual fish as a group, whereas "fishes" is the correct way to refer to multiple species of fish. I wonder if "octopi" might refer to multiple octopus without making any indication as to weather they are…
There’s no right way. Octopus is a word created in modern scientific latin by nonnative (scientific) speakers out of greek parts brought into English. There are no real rules there. It is not a loanword from Greek, it was meant to be a scientific latin origin word, but not native latin like other Latin words that have -us as endings for nouns. It’s a mess, there’s no answer, pluralize as you like but don’t go telling…
There may be no universally agreed right way, but there are certainly wrong ways. "Octopuses" and "octopodes" are both acceptable, but "octopi" is wrong. "Octopuses" can be justified using Fowler's rule (from 1913!) "there is a tendency to abandon the Latin plurals, & that when one is really in doubt which to use the English form should be given the preference". "Octopodes" can be justified on etymological grounds. There is no basis to use "octopi" other than an erroneous application of the Latin rule to form plurals for second declension nouns.
Re: Octopuses caught on camera throwing things at each other
#170May I suggest a book to anybody that finds cephalopods interesting, especially given the connection with consciousness which is a recurring topic in these circles: Other Minds: The Octopus, the Sea, and the Deep Origins of Consciousness My only critique is that the plural spelling is octopuses and not octopi , just like the article. Octopuses just looks wrong and sounds funny, I stand my ground. Yes yes I know that i…
Octopuses, octopodes, and octopi are all prefectly valid in modern English. There is an argument to be made that we should respect the greek root, but Octopi has been used for so long that it is a modern English word