[namenumber]

I just finished "Other Minds" by Godfrey-Smith which reference one of these "Octopolises". For anybody interested in either octopuses or how nature evolves different forms of consciousness its a really interesting read.

What most struck me was how incredibly short lived octopuses are. I guess some deep-sea variants may have longer life spans, but i was surprised that the variants we usually encounter only live for approximately two years before they wither and die.

Now as for what an octopus could be able to do with its body-distributed form of consciousness given a longer lifespan is a rather interesting question.

[glenstein]

Right, and I think that exposes a bit of an unconscious assumption that many people (or perhaps just me) probably have, namely that intelligence seems to accompany longevity, but that is clearly not always the case.

[vram22]

Which in turn exposes the assumption that longevity is desirable.

See Steve Jobs' commencement speech at Stanford, 2005, where, among other things, he points out that we will all be recycled some day.

https://youtu.be/UF8uR6Z6KLc

[purpleflame1257]

Longevity provides the ability to assimilate more data, which would seem to be good for an intelligent creature.

[glenstein]

Yeah longevity seems to be good so far as I can tell, from just about any perspective. That is, if life is good, then life plus longevity is also good.

I think it feels like progress to discover counterintuitive thoughts, and so thought experiments or explorations tend to to incentivize the seeking out of counterintuitive thoughts, which I think sometimes has the effect of endorsing strange conclusions, because their counterintuitive nature is what makes them seductive. I find the phrase "it's not a trick question" to be a healthy antidote, and I think when it comes to longevity it's in the "not a trick question" category, and, is fair to put in the good column, with usual caveats about all else being equal and except for unusual circumstances etc.