
Giant Pacific Octopus - simonebrunozzi
https://www.nationalgeographic.com/animals/invertebrates/g/giant-pacific-octopus/
======
reaperducer
When I was a kid, my father used to raise octopi in our basement in NYC as a
hobby. He had about six 55-gallon tanks arranged in two rows.

Every day, he'd come home from work, throw his hat and tie on the coatrack,
and immediately head to the basement to play with them. If you didn't play
with them, they'd die of boredom, he said.

Their favorite game was "jar." He's put empty Gerber and Ball jars in the
tanks, with lids, and they'd swim in and out and in and out of the open jars.
Eventually, they'd learn to open the closed jars. And then they'd spend hours
swimming inside the jars, and closing the lids behind them, and trying
different sized lids to see which ones worked on which jars. It was all very
fulfilling to my father.

I don't know what happened to the octopi when they got mature. My guess is
that he sold them to pet stores or restaurants or something.

~~~
Cro_on
unfortunately and to shatter your dreams, as mine were, it is and has always
been:

octopuses*

tis mixage of greik and latin eytymologies and wyll not bey allowed

by the way is your dad thomas pynchon?

~~~
picodguyo
"The Oxford English Dictionary lists octopi, octopuses and octopodes (in that
order)"

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plural_form_of_words_ending_in...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plural_form_of_words_ending_in_-
us)

~~~
DanBC
Does it?

octopus

(ˈɒktəpəs, ɒkˈtəʊpəs)Pl. octopodes (ɒkˈtəʊpədiːz), anglicized
octopuses.[mod.L. octōpus, a. Gr. ὀκτώπους, acc. ὀκτώποδ-α eight-footed, f.
ὀκτώ eight + πούς, πόδ- foot.]

octopus

A genus of cephalopod molluscs, characterized by eight `arms' surrounding the
mouth and provided with suckers; an individual of this genus (esp. one of the
larger and more formidable species).

1758: Baker in Phil. Trans. L. 778 “The Polypus, particularly so called, the
Octopus, Preke, or Pour-contrel.”

1835: Kirby Hab. & Inst. Anim. I. x. 308 “The body of the octopus is small, it
has legs sometimes a foot and a half in length, with about two hundred and
forty suckers on each leg.”

1880: Browning Pietro of Abano 401 “Help! The old magician clings like an
octopus!”

1884: H. M. Leathes Rough Notes Nat. Hist. 46 “Saying that enormous octopuses
existed on the western side of Panama, in the Pacific Ocean.”

octopus

b. fig.; usually applied to an organized power having extended ramifications
and far-reaching influence, esp. harmful or destructive.

1882: Greg Misc. Ess. ii. 37 “We are the very octopus of nations.”

1893: Boston (Mass.) Jrnl. 25 Mar. 2/1 “The electric octopus. Formal
organization of the New England Street Railway Company.”

1894: Westm. Gaz. 12 Mar. 2/1 “He was an administrative octopus, a cormorant
of toil.”

octopus

c. attrib. and Comb.

1880: G. Meredith Tragic Com. (1881) 206 “Then they laid octopus-limbs on
her.”

1894: Outing (U.S.) XXIV. 460/1 “An octopus power sought to tear the human
limpet from its clinging place.”

1898: P. Manson Trop. Diseases i. 9 “A strange-looking octopus-like creature.”

------
moh_maya
If you find the topic of non-human intelligence, esp. octopus intelligence
interesting, you may find Adrian Tchaikovsky's children of Ruin series worth
your time. The 2nd book, without ruining too much of the story, has octopii as
one of the central characters. [1]

Going out further afield, exploring forms of intelligence & cognition that are
very different from humans, Peter Watt's blindsight (firefall) series is an
idea-filled, dense, very satisfying read. [2]

[1][https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/40376072-children-of-
rui...](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/40376072-children-of-ruin)

[2]
[https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/48484.Blindsight](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/48484.Blindsight)

~~~
yourapostasy
I'd really like to hear the feedback from those in AI-complete or cognitive
science research about Blindsight and especially Watts' notes [1], and if we
could implement "merely" sentient AI with no consciousness, or if sentience
backed by human-capacity reasoning and learning somehow lead to sapience.
Because Watts makes an effective argument with his copious bibliography that
"only" sentience can Accomplish A Hell Of A Lot.

Could a "merely" sentient software-driven but not conscious/self-aware robot
be built that washes my dishes / cutlery and puts them away, keeps my
permaculture garden tended/weeded, separates recyclables, washes, hang dries
when feasible / conventional-dries when not, folds, puts away clothes / towels
/ fabric products, dusts, vacuums, puts away clutter, _etc._?

[1]
[https://www.rifters.com/real/Blindsight.htm#Notes](https://www.rifters.com/real/Blindsight.htm#Notes)

~~~
andrewflnr
IANACognititive scientist, but:

Yes, I don't think anyone in AI research believes human-style self-awareness
is needed for those tasks. Well, putting away clutter might be tricky, just in
getting human definitions of "put away". Most of the rest of them are just
high-level pattern matching.

I think consciousness is worthwhile for communicating useful thought patterns
to your peers. This is consistent with the modern perspective that
"consciousness is just stories you tell yourself" and even the Watts
perspective that it's inefficient. Those stories about yourself are in fact
useful if they make your tribemates more effective, and (as anyone knows who
has thought about communication overhead in a large organization) the
individual inefficiency is offset by the power to harness a hundred or a
million individuals to the same task.

------
dmix
The short life span always interested me, especially being high intelligence.
It lives long enough to breed, serving it's short singular purpose.

I'd love to see a comparison of the life spans of various animals/species. It
would make for a good graphic/visualization. I'm guessing this sort of
lifespan is more common than not, compared to say whales living ~50yrs.

Edit: I found two good infographicy examples, although Id love something far
more in depth

[https://payload.cargocollective.com/1/13/443926/6626429/ANIM...](https://payload.cargocollective.com/1/13/443926/6626429/ANIMALS_o.jpg)

[https://www.alansfactoryoutlet.com/how-long-animals-live-
the...](https://www.alansfactoryoutlet.com/how-long-animals-live-the-life-
spans-of-50-animals)

~~~
UncleOxidant
Given their intelligence, one wonders what they would be like if they lived
say 20 years? Would they be ruling the oceans?

~~~
mindfulplay
I find this amusing as this is an inherently human emotional evaluation.
Perhaps that is not the point in the grand scheme of things?

Octopuses have survived for 500+ millions of years and I would say more
intelligent and peaceful than humans who 'ruled' or savaged their own species
for... what benefit actually?

~~~
r3trohack3r
A viable chance at getting off this rock.

500+ million years is a blink of an eye on a cosmic scale. Humans are the only
species we’ve observed that has a viable chance or surviving on cosmic time
scales; and we will likely bring other life along with us for that ride.

Short of another human-equivalent species evolving, or a hyper resilient
organism that can piggy back on space debris, humans are literally the only
shot life on Earth has.

~~~
mindfulplay
Why does that matter? Why are humans so special? I 'feel' like octopuses are
the better candidate :) putting aside trivial human aspirations....

~~~
r3trohack3r
When they successfully escape earths orbit, get back to me.

Until then, all odds are stacked against them. They’re going to go extinct in
an instant on a cosmic timescale. Unless, of course, humans choose to bring
them along and save them from that fate.

~~~
jbay808
I'm not necessarily disagreeing, but it's interesting to me that in our many
hundred thousand year history as a species, the "point" of our intelligence
(by your measure) wasn't even a suggestion until maybe 120 years ago, and only
a dream until maybe 60 years ago. What are the chances?

Perhaps a scholar in 320 AD would also have been surprised by how remarkable
it was that the true purpose of human intelligence had only been so recently
discovered.

~~~
r3trohack3r
Bingo.

This is the chasm that needs to be crossed. Its not just the immediate
advantage your species gets from intelligence. It’s cultivating that to a
point where you realize all life on this planet is default extinct. Then
getting your species to the point where you even have a _chance_ of changing
that default.

Humans are still default extinct. We are on a path to changing that default.

~~~
ancientworldnow
No we're not, at best we're just changing the timeline. You're still either
time bound by the death of the universe best case scenario or resource bound
before that happens (if the universe can "end"). Extinction is inevitable at
any timescale.

~~~
chrisco255
Well the whole point of the game of life is to keep the game going for as long
as possible.

------
ismail
I just finished watching a Netflix documentary about an octopus. The kids
loved it.

It was probably one of the most fascinating documentaries I have ever seen.
What a story & some amazing footage. I could not help but think that octopus
are very intelligent.

“My Octopus Teacher”

Edit: spoiler alert on the link. Watch it without reading Wikipedia. The
twists and turns are part of the experience.

[https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/My_Octopus_Teacher](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/My_Octopus_Teacher)

~~~
noman-land
+1 for this documentary. Really interesting relationship and some incredible
footage.

------
locusofself
I highly recommend the book "Other Minds", a fascinating and very accessible
book about the octupus and cuttlefish. They are amazing creatures.

[https://www.amazon.com/Other-Minds-Octopus-Origins-
Conscious...](https://www.amazon.com/Other-Minds-Octopus-Origins-
Consciousness/dp/0374227764)

~~~
epalm
Great book.

------
fit2rule
I love octopus. They are one of my top favourite life forms.

Did you know that we are discovering they are a bit more social than we
thought?

[https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/octopus-city-
obser...](https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/octopus-city-
observed-180964936/)

How about these sleepy heads, eh?

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RHR70lVy79Y](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RHR70lVy79Y)

One wonders just what sort of other crazy hijinx they get up to, personally ..
I once watched a reef occy lure some dumb fish into his lair with an old
crayfish carcass, it amused me for hours watching him/her lazy fishing from a
hole ..

If you ever find yourself in occy territory, i.e. on a tidal Rockpool, and you
suspect there might be one in a hole somewhere, flash some coins and direct
sunlight into the depths .. I often find they can't resist the opportunity to
add some shiny to their middens ..

------
amoorthy
Highly recommend the documentary My Octopus Teacher on Netflix. Beautiful
story of how a free diver forms a friendship of sorts with an octopus.

Preview here:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3s0LTDhqe5A](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3s0LTDhqe5A)

~~~
sloshnmosh
I also highly recommend My octopus teacher.

Very beautiful and sad in a “circle of life” kind of way.

------
wiredfool
Related: Giant Pacific Tree Octopus
[https://zapatopi.net/treeoctopus/](https://zapatopi.net/treeoctopus/)

(one of the classics of the early internet)

~~~
Xavdidtheshadow
This was our introduction to "not everything on the internet is true, even if
it's presented nicely" circa middle school. Glad to see it's still up and
running!

------
PopeDotNinja
Hearing about the Giant Pacific Octopus always reminds me of the story about
the guy who found a novel way to go Octopus hunting when hunting them was
illegal.

[https://www.nytimes.com/2013/10/20/magazine/the-octopus-
that...](https://www.nytimes.com/2013/10/20/magazine/the-octopus-that-almost-
ate-seattle.html)

~~~
r00fus
I still don't get why the article elevated what was essentially an illegal
hunt by a teen idiot.

Nothing novel about it. Just breaking rules and conventions to kill a creature
for food.

~~~
aqme28
I think we read a different article. It made it clear it was a legal hunt by a
teen who did some homework on it.

~~~
r00fus
Did you read the comments? The locals knew that octopus. The octopus was an
attraction for nearby divers.

He killed it and doomed its babies.

The article was written by someone clearly amoral about the whole issue.

~~~
tmp538394722
That added context makes it sad, but does not make it illegal, which is what
you are responding to.

------
mindfulplay
Octopuses are so fascinating. We scour other planets and galaxies for life /
mystical aliens sending aimless signals in search of reciprocation or even
acknowledgement.

I wonder how amazing it would be if we had a similar grand undertaking in our
oceans... With just octopuses (without interfering with them)?

They are perfect aliens we are seemingly looking for in the skies but living
right alongside us....

------
TenJack
A new documentary on Netflix called, "My Octopus Teacher" is worth checking
out.

"An unusual friendship develops between a filmmaker and an octopus living in a
South African kelp forest that shares the mysteries of its world."

[https://www.netflix.com/watch/81045007](https://www.netflix.com/watch/81045007)

------
neofrommatrix
I highly recommend a documentary on Netflix named, “My Octopus Teacher”. It’s
really beautifully made. A man becomes “friends” with an octopus and goes to
meet and observe every day for a year until she mates and dies. It’s amazing.

------
ape4
Until clicking I didn't know if this was going to be a software product or an
animal ;)

------
cipherzero
Does their brain consciously drive the control of their cell pigment/color
ability, or is it something more subconscious/reactive/instinctive? Seems like
the brain has to be involved to coordinate...

I wonder what the closest thing like that would be for humans? Would it be
akin to me _thinking_ “i want to be more tan” and somehow my cells get the
signal to be more tan?

Obviously we will likely never know, but there is some leap here I wish we
understood better. (Or do we and I’m just unaware?)

Edit: thinking about it more... i don’t know what happens when i think to
“make a fist” and yet it happens, so maybe it is something more at that
level...

~~~
emteycz
I think more like moving your body. You can do it when you want to, you can do
it on autopilot with varying degrees and axes of control, or do it while
asleep. You don't need to subvocalize it, you think more about the result,
next intentions, etc.

~~~
cipherzero
Thanks! That does make sense, and it’s entirely fascinating to think about!

Does anyone know what this area of study is called?

~~~
hadlock
Look into cognition vs consciousness.

A baby can feed themselves holding a spoon, but they lack object permanence
(the ball went behind the couch, it's vanished from this universe forever),
and certainly aren't aware of stuff like their own mortality, their favorite
color, or if they even should have a favorite color, etc

Child development is a lot more studied than I thought it was, and opens a lot
of doors to exploring the answers to some of these questions.

------
interestica
I'm not sure if it's still alive, but if you're in Toronto, Ripley's Aquarium
has one. Though, it's kept in the 'Canadian Waters' gallery for...reasons.

"Ripley’s Aquarium of Canada is home to a giant Pacific octopus (Enteroctopus
dofleini). This species of octopus is the largest of 300+ known octopus
species. There is a huge variation in size that depends on the individual, but
the average for this species is considered around 15-18kg (33-40lb), with an
arm span around 4m(12-14ft) when stretched out. Of course, we can’t talk about
size without mentioning the world record – OVER 130kg (300lb) and 9m (30ft)
wide! There has also been the occasional “fisherman’s tale” of even larger
individuals, but the proof isn’t quite there yet.

The giant Pacific octopus can live to be about four years old, with both males
and females dying soon after breeding. Females live long enough to tend to
their eggs, but they do not eat during this months-long brooding period, and
usually die soon afterwards."

[https://www.ripleyaquariums.com/canada/tag/qa/](https://www.ripleyaquariums.com/canada/tag/qa/)

------
cbsks
> The size record is held by a specimen that was 30 feet across and weighed
> more than 600 pounds

What?!? That's incredible! It would be so incredibly terrifying to see one of
those in its natural habitat.

I tried searching for more information about the largest one found, but I
didn't find much. The only information I could find was that it was found on a
beach in British Columbia. I was really hoping for a picture of it.

------
MLij
There's a nice little Ted talk by David Gallo about life in the ocean. Most of
it is about what cephalopods can do. It's really amazing:
[https://www.ted.com/talks/david_gallo_underwater_astonishmen...](https://www.ted.com/talks/david_gallo_underwater_astonishments)

------
esch89
My first concept of octopi as a highly intelligent species came from this
essay: [https://orionmagazine.org/article/deep-
intellect/](https://orionmagazine.org/article/deep-intellect/) Highly
recommend it to anyone who likes these creatures.

------
pmontra
If you're interested in human octopus interactions I recommend Sy Montgomery's
Soul Of An Octopus.

[http://symontgomery.com/soul-of-an-octopus/](http://symontgomery.com/soul-of-
an-octopus/)

------
kemiller
The sheer alien-ness of cephalopod intelligence reminds me of the current
conversation about AI and whether they are "truly" thinking or just
mechanistic. It's easier to see an octopus as executing a highly advanced
algorithm than it is to see ourselves that way. And we can look at them and
appreciate their sophistication yet have no way of understanding their
internal experience.

------
polytely
If you like octopusses I highly recommend the EV Nautilus channel on youtube:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lbHjs9A7sis](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lbHjs9A7sis)

They livestream ocean exploration with remote controlled submarine, it
produces wonderful footage.

------
pengaru
On the subject of octopuses, Radiolab did a neat "octomom" episode that's
worth a listen.

[https://www.wnycstudios.org/podcasts/radiolab/articles/octom...](https://www.wnycstudios.org/podcasts/radiolab/articles/octomom)

------
HumblyTossed
FTA:

> They live to be about four years old, with both males and females dying soon
> after breeding.

> Highly intelligent creatures, giant Pacific octopuses have learned to open
> jars, mimic other octopuses, and solve mazes in lab tests.

What would be the point of evolving to be so intelligent if the lifespan is so
short. Seems strange to me.

~~~
082349872349872
Speedrunning the wheel of reincarnation?

Bonus multifilm:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YkdhJWyzFR8&t=37](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YkdhJWyzFR8&t=37)

------
ortusdux
Reminds me of octopus wrestling in the PNW back in the 60's.

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Octopus_wrestling](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Octopus_wrestling)

------
gigatexal
The coolest creatures. I love them!

------
soufron
They only live for 4 years?

------
mapcars
I wonder why people keep ignoring standards and use feets, pounds etc even on
quite international resources. I understand it is convenient on local market
to buy some food, but in this kind of scientific articles makes no sense to
me.

~~~
munificent
_> even on quite international resources._

By that, are you referring to _National_ Geographic? :)

