this post was submitted on 05 Jan 2025
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His answer is the octopus. What say you?

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[–] FundMECFS@slrpnk.net 76 points 3 days ago (7 children)

But they

  1. Have extremely short lifespan so a limited capacity to learn (1-2 years)
  2. Don’t raise their offspring, in fact after mating/laying eggs they naturally die, so no knowledge sharing
  3. Are extremely solitary and don’t have social bonds or do anything socially, so little communication/passing of knowledge
[–] scarabic@lemmy.world 3 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (2 children)

I’m not even convinced that intelligence is a requirement to be the dominant species. Intelligence is so expensive that nature rarely ever selects for it.

Trilobytes did pretty damn well for a hell of a lot longer than we have so far. I think we need a stronger working definition of “dominant” in order to judge any candidates.

[–] FundMECFS@slrpnk.net 2 points 2 days ago (1 children)

But the reason he gives for them becoming the dominant species is their intelligence.

[–] scarabic@lemmy.world 1 points 2 days ago

Sure well if that is a precondition of the conversation, we can talk about it. But IMO it may be a faulty assumption to go on.

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