[fhdkweig]

The real problem with cephalopods is their lifespan. For their age, they are almost as smart as humans, the problem is that they don't live past the age of 5 years.

[ekelsen]

I would argue that not having any overlap between generations is a bigger problem. It guarantees no accumulation of knowledge.

[fhdkweig]

Agreed. If they were social enough to form large communities of unrelated families, it would also fix the generation overlap. But they don't do that either. They seem to be in a weird evolutionary dead end for intelligence.