Octopuses seen hunting together with fish • Hacker News Board

Re: Octopuses seen hunting together with fish

#221

Post by Blikkentrekker » Thu, Sep 26, 2024, 9:54 PM UTC

banannaise wrote: post #124

neerajk wrote: post #22

aside: me after reading the headline: Shouldn't that be Octopii? But no! "The plural form octopii is doubly incorrect. Firstly, octopus derives from Greek, not Latin; its etymologically-consistent plural form is octopodes. Secondly, even if octopus were a second-declension Latin noun, the plural form would be octopi; in the correct plurals radii and gladii, with which octopii is analogous, the first ‘i’s are part of…

While I'm all for a history lesson (and the double-I octopii is indeed simply incorrect) I take issue with anyone insisting that "octopi" is wrong: 1. Language is neither static nor a series of rules to be blindly followed. The way a word was pluralized 1400 years ago has limited relevance today. 2. As noted just about everywhere, "octopodes" looks insane in any modern English sentence because we don't pluralize any…

All my friends say “octopodes”.

Some people on the internet keep saying that that's wrong; I find that very strange.

>because we don't pluralize any other word that way.

Certainly we do “platypodes”, “matrices”, “irides”, “clitorides” and “vortices”, are all quite common words.

Re: Octopuses seen hunting together with fish

#222

Post by astrange » Thu, Sep 26, 2024, 10:03 PM UTC

mistrial9 wrote: post #135

mellavora wrote: post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Octopuses seem to have quite a bit of independent cognition in each of their arms, which are wrangled by the central brain. Yes, that's inherent in the design. All grey matter (optimized for local intercommunication), no white matter (optimized for sending signals between regions). Each arm has its own ganglion ("CPU") and the central unit struggles to keep up with these and keep them coordinated.

living brains are not "CPUs"

They're SoCs.

Re: Octopuses seen hunting together with fish

#223

Post by john2x » Thu, Sep 26, 2024, 10:04 PM UTC

Wojtkie wrote: post #206

rkagerer wrote: post #182

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And yet like us they have two eyes. I wonder if we meet aliens from another star-orbiting planet if their light-sensors will look anything like ours.

Well, I'm not sure there'd be much benefit to spending energy on a 3rd eye. You can already achieve stereoscopic vision with just two eyes, why waste the energy on a third? It probably doesn't increase fitness enough to be worth the energy spend.

Different sets for different wavelength ranges

Re: Octopuses seen hunting together with fish

#224

Post by thfuran » Thu, Sep 26, 2024, 10:15 PM UTC

Wojtkie wrote: post #206

rkagerer wrote: post #182

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And yet like us they have two eyes. I wonder if we meet aliens from another star-orbiting planet if their light-sensors will look anything like ours.

Well, I'm not sure there'd be much benefit to spending energy on a 3rd eye. You can already achieve stereoscopic vision with just two eyes, why waste the energy on a third? It probably doesn't increase fitness enough to be worth the energy spend.

It might be too hard to parse, but an eye on each arm would give variable baseline and potentially 360° stereoscopic coverage.

Re: Octopuses seen hunting together with fish

#225

Post by rickydroll » Thu, Sep 26, 2024, 10:15 PM UTC

Tijdreiziger wrote: post #217

ep103 wrote: post #201

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I try to eat meat to minimize the formula of: cruelty_cow = IntModifier * Animal_Intelligence /(AmountOfProvidedMeat/Deaths) * FrequencyOfEatingThisAnimal Solve for: Min (cruelty_cow + cruelty_pig + cruelty_octopus + ...) Where AmountOfProvidedMeat > NeededMeatForHealthyDiet And Cost * AmountOfProvidedMeat I've generally found that maximizing on Fish, Chicken, and Cow (in that order) seems to be the best bet. I tend…

Modulo some planning and adjusting of recipes, meat is unnecessary for a healthy diet, and a vegan diet tends towards 0 cruelty.

It all depends on the definition of a healthy diet. I have type II diabetes, and I eat low-carb as much as reasonably possible. A friend with A-fib and gets the best results from the low-fat vegan diet. I have a friend whose partner accumulates iron in her blood, so she does best with a vegetarian diet. If you have kidney disease, you need a diet with specific types of protein and a bioavailability level that you can't entirely get from plants.

The human body is an amazing thing that is simultaneously a fucking pain in the ass. There is no "one truth" for food.

Re: Octopuses seen hunting together with fish

#226

Post by thfuran » Thu, Sep 26, 2024, 10:17 PM UTC

iwontberude wrote: post #126

banannaise wrote: post #124

Earlier quoted context omitted.

While I'm all for a history lesson (and the double-I octopii is indeed simply incorrect) I take issue with anyone insisting that "octopi" is wrong: 1. Language is neither static nor a series of rules to be blindly followed. The way a word was pluralized 1400 years ago has limited relevance today. 2. As noted just about everywhere, "octopodes" looks insane in any modern English sentence because we don't pluralize any…

3. “Octopuses” sounds like what a child or English as Second Language speaker would say. Not sure what is stilted about being a novice to the language.

Octopuses sounds like a proper English pluralization, not that nonsense about sticking other languages' grammar rules into English.

Re: Octopuses seen hunting together with fish

#227

Post by rickydroll » Thu, Sep 26, 2024, 10:20 PM UTC

nerdponx wrote: post #77

ChrisMarshallNY wrote: post #13

I used to love eating octopus, but since I've learned so much about their intelligence, I have not been able to bring myself to do so, anymore. I have the luxury of choice. There are many, in this world, that do not.

Consider the intelligence of pigs as well. Even if cows, sheep, deer, rabbits, chickens, turkeys, et al. all sit below the "I don't want to eat you" cutoff point, pigs should probably be above it.

I decided on pigs as the smart threshold because they were as smart as my dogs, and I would never eat my dog. Mutton, lamb, or chicken is no problem whatsoever. You grab them by the neck, stare deep into their eyes, and you will see the back of their skull.

Re: Octopuses seen hunting together with fish

#228

Post by h0l0cube » Thu, Sep 26, 2024, 10:22 PM UTC

exe34 wrote: post #216

mistrial9 wrote: post #135

Earlier quoted context omitted.

living brains are not "CPUs"

[flagged]

Be mindful of the forum you're on, and yourself.

Re: Octopuses seen hunting together with fish

#229

Post by vasco » Thu, Sep 26, 2024, 10:25 PM UTC

inkcapmushroom wrote: post #205

vasco wrote: post #172

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You should try Polvo à Lagareiro or Pulpo a la Gallega, life is too short to not eat good food.

They already said they used to love eating octopus. You reply they should try eating octopus because it's tasty. They already tried it before and decided to give it up for reasons beyond how it tastes.

Yeah but in case they didn't try the best dishes they might not know the extent of what they are missing.

Re: Octopuses seen hunting together with fish

#230

Post by GrantMoyer » Thu, Sep 26, 2024, 10:54 PM UTC

rickydroll wrote: post #227

nerdponx wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Consider the intelligence of pigs as well. Even if cows, sheep, deer, rabbits, chickens, turkeys, et al. all sit below the "I don't want to eat you" cutoff point, pigs should probably be above it.

I decided on pigs as the smart threshold because they were as smart as my dogs, and I would never eat my dog. Mutton, lamb, or chicken is no problem whatsoever. You grab them by the neck, stare deep into their eyes, and you will see the back of their skull.

I feel the same way about some people.