Shaidz said:
Octopi!!! 'Octopuses' aint engresh!
No, but it is Eng
lish. "Octopi" ain't English (neither is "octopodes", for that matter), it's Latin. And English ain't Latin. It's an entirely separate language, called "English". We call them "octopuses", split our infinitives, and use prepositions as things to end our sentences with. As impressive as you time travel is, mister centurion, the rules all changed when the Germans took over.
That said, why do people all seem to think these critters are a danger? Sure, they're smart, resourceful, cunning and adaptable, same as we are, and they've been known to prey on animals that routinely prey on them, same as we did. Hawaiian creation myth (or so I was told in Hawaii by a supposed expert; I suppose it could've been a simple "prank the tourist" thing, but I doubt it) holds that this universe is just the latest in a series, and that each universe is built from the remains of the last. Last time, a creature managed to flee the destroyed universe and escape into this one. That creature was the octopus. I think we'd be a lot better off working together. Think about it- we formed a practical alliance with the wolves (we throw the spears, you run down the gazelles), that worked out wonderfully for our species. Neither we nor wolves are aquatic, so our dominance ended at the oceans- here may be a chance to change that. And if they won't play ball, well...
We, as a species, have been engaged in scores of genocidal conflicts for hundreds or thousands of years. We poison our own air, food, and water to weed out the weak. We set off nuclear weapons inside our only biosphere. Our highest-ranked god descended from the heavens and said "Knock it off with the violence" and we nailed him to a stick as a warning to others- then turned around and dismissed the efforts of
those who killed said god and
apparently developed time travel, as you can see at the beginning of this post.
We can handle a bunch of uppity mollusks.