this post was submitted on 30 May 2024
256 points (98.9% liked)

Today I Learned

17885 readers
140 users here now

What did you learn today? Share it with us!

We learn something new every day. This is a community dedicated to informing each other and helping to spread knowledge.

The rules for posting and commenting, besides the rules defined here for lemmy.world, are as follows:

Rules (interactive)


Rule 1- All posts must begin with TIL. Linking to a source of info is optional, but highly recommended as it helps to spark discussion.

** Posts must be about an actual fact that you have learned, but it doesn't matter if you learned it today. See Rule 6 for all exceptions.**



Rule 2- Your post subject cannot be illegal or NSFW material.

Your post subject cannot be illegal or NSFW material. You will be warned first, banned second.



Rule 3- Do not seek mental, medical and professional help here.

Do not seek mental, medical and professional help here. Breaking this rule will not get you or your post removed, but it will put you at risk, and possibly in danger.



Rule 4- No self promotion or upvote-farming of any kind.

That's it.



Rule 5- No baiting or sealioning or promoting an agenda.

Posts and comments which, instead of being of an innocuous nature, are specifically intended (based on reports and in the opinion of our crack moderation team) to bait users into ideological wars on charged political topics will be removed and the authors warned - or banned - depending on severity.



Rule 6- Regarding non-TIL posts.

Provided it is about the community itself, you may post non-TIL posts using the [META] tag on your post title.



Rule 7- You can't harass or disturb other members.

If you vocally harass or discriminate against any individual member, you will be removed.

Likewise, if you are a member, sympathiser or a resemblant of a movement that is known to largely hate, mock, discriminate against, and/or want to take lives of a group of people, and you were provably vocal about your hate, then you will be banned on sight.

For further explanation, clarification and feedback about this rule, you may follow this link.



Rule 8- All comments should try to stay relevant to their parent content.



Rule 9- Reposts from other platforms are not allowed.

Let everyone have their own content.



Rule 10- Majority of bots aren't allowed to participate here.

Unless included in our Whitelist for Bots, your bot will not be allowed to participate in this community. To have your bot whitelisted, please contact the moderators for a short review.



Partnered Communities

You can view our partnered communities list by following this link. To partner with our community and be included, you are free to message the moderators or comment on a pinned post.

Community Moderation

For inquiry on becoming a moderator of this community, you may comment on the pinned post of the time, or simply shoot a message to the current moderators.

founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
256
submitted 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago) by [email protected] to c/til
 

Some cephalopods are able to fly through the air for distances of up to 50 metres (160 ft). While cephalopods are not particularly aerodynamic, they achieve these impressive ranges by jet-propulsion; water continues to be expelled from the funnel while the organism is in the air. The animals spread their fins and tentacles to form wings and actively control lift force with body posture. One species, Todarodes pacificus, has been observed spreading tentacles in a flat fan shape with a mucus film between the individual tentacles, while another, Sepioteuthis sepioidea, has been observed putting the tentacles in a circular arrangement.

Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cephalopod#Senses

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] givesomefucks 25 points 5 months ago (5 children)

The only thing that stopped them from becoming a dominate species like humans is their short lifespans.

They don't live long enough to accumulate and exchange complex information.

We could have an underwater squid society if they just lived a couple years longer so they'd start seeing a benefit from increased lifespan and start selecting for it.

It's why aliens coming to earth is so far fetched. It's not just "life" being out there, it's hitting a bunch of conditions so certain necessary traits are selected for, then the species living long enough to develop and sustain interstellar travel.

All while being in Earths local commuting distance.

[–] kamenlady 16 points 5 months ago (2 children)

Maybe they reached this state in the past and thought:

"Nah, the whole trauma you build up in a long life of complicated relationships, that inevitably ends in sorrow and death? It just ain't worth it."

Then they reverted back to the short-life sweet-spot of 2 - 3 years. Enough time to get reproductive organs going, have the best sex of your lifetime and thank off.

No one's got time for religion, war and all that other nonsense with such a short time at your disposal.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 5 months ago

Actually sounds quite reasonable and pleasant.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 5 months ago

Fuck relationships, but I appreciate being able to have sex with more than one different tentacled creature over my lifetime

[–] [email protected] 14 points 5 months ago (1 children)

I wouldn't say it's the only thing getting in their way; being underwater is a major disadvantage when it comes to developing advanced technology, as it makes smelting rather difficult.

[–] givesomefucks 8 points 5 months ago (2 children)

Don't judge a fish on how well it can climb a tree...

Just because the stuff we invented on land won't work, doesn't mean the mighty squid people wouldnt have invented an underwater method instead.

[–] FlyingSquid 5 points 5 months ago

Don't give away all of our secrets!

[–] [email protected] 2 points 5 months ago (1 children)

And imagine what it will be like when we are gone and the world is under water and they have access to our technology!

[–] [email protected] 2 points 5 months ago

I imagine nuclear weapons work under water? Does it diminish their likelihood to cause nuclear winter?

[–] [email protected] 12 points 5 months ago

I'm just conjecturing, mind you. Nothing truly serious. That said:

I think that individual lifespan plays a small role on this. The main issue is that they don't care about their young and their typical lonely behaviour.

I'm saying this because a lot of our (human) strength is not individual. It's the small things that we do that give a tiny bit more power to the ones around them, and to the next generations. Those things pile up, and yet for cephalopods there's nothing remotely similar to that. (Cetaceans come closer, but their ability to change the environment around them is a bit handicapped. Or rather flippercapped.)

[–] DeVaolleysAdVocate 3 points 5 months ago (1 children)

didn't the pentagon come out a few years ago saying there are 'ufo's that are not US or other known nation's. There are lots of possibilities that are not aliens from other plants but then again with some time a race could learn to use technology to live thousands of years naturally right?

[–] givesomefucks 1 points 5 months ago

They've been saying that for decades...

For so long that they were able to say

Nah, that was us, we couldn't say anything till the SR-71 Blackbird was declassified tho

Why would you assume that when they say next:

But this new thing definitely isn't us

That it's not the same thing?

Hell, you're operating under the assumption they're actually things.

The stuff where pilots say "nothing can move like that" is usually from some trick of perspective because they're flying faster than the speed of sound and trying to look at something at a weird angle.

Like, something from another planet that flew here is like a 0.00000000000000001% chance.

It would be more likely to be a civilization from the center of the Earth, time travellers, something from a parallel universe...

All that stuff is also incredibly unlikely and not what any of those are. But even fucking Jesus coming back and flying around is more likely than aliens flew here through space.

Especially considering they had to fly here without us ever finding any evidence except these few videos.

If they could hide coming here, they wouldn't have any problem hiding once here.

And if they were gonna let us catch glimpses for this long, they'd have said what's up by now.

[–] TheFonz 1 points 5 months ago

There's a great book on this topic called "other minds" by Peter Godfried.