[bamurphymac1]

As I understand it they have very short lifespans (3-5 years) and octopus mothers only lay eggs once. They die of starvation after guarding & tending the eggs right up to hatching.

I think they just don’t have the opportunity to produce culture. Maybe they could be taught but it seems like generational learning would be extremely unlikely.

Edit: their situation has always struck me as very poetic and sad. If they are conscious their existence seems so lonely. But maybe that’s just my mammalian bias!

[agency]

FWIW I think that behavior may be specific to the Giant Pacific octopus[1]. I'm not sure if other octopuses (octopi? octopodes?) behave the same way.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giant_Pacific_octopus

[therein]

As far as my understanding goes, the octopuses that don't exhibit that behavior are the exception to the rule instead.

[TeMPOraL]

Maybe they would be a better candidate for uplift than dolphins then? We could start out by fixing their lifespans (apparently it's a surgically resolvable problem, see [0]), and seeing what happens.

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[0] - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21086642