We’ve all gotten just a bit too comfortable being jerks to strangers on the internet I think
So I’ve hidden this reply, both because it’s obnoxious and because I don’t want the person who wrote it being harassed for it, but I need you to understand: I don’t know you. We are not friends. This is not fun or cute, we are not sharing a charming joke together. You are just being an asshole.
like 99% of “men and women are soooo different!!!” comedy is literally just describing the experience of not understanding other people. like it’s not that women never say what they mean talking to other people is just like that. it can be hard to understand what other people are thinking. bioessentialism really rots the brain
“women will say I’m fine and then not mean it” yeah that’s something literally everybody does. is this your first time interacting with another human being my guy
this is one of the only funny responses on this hell of a post
the commodification of friendship is the most annoying thing to come out of the internet in ages. like actually i love to break this to you but you’re supposed to help your friends move even if it’s hard work. or stay up with them when they’re sad even if you’re gonna lose sleep. you’re supposed to listen to their fears and sorrows even if it means your own mind takes on a little bit of that weight. that’s how you know that you care. they will drive you to the airport and then you will make them soup when they’re sick. you’re supposed to make small sacrifices for them and they are supposed to do that for you. and there’s actually gonna be rough patches for both of you where the balance will be uneven and you will still be friends and it will not be unhealthy and they will not be abusive. life is not meant to be an endless prioritization of our own comfort if it was we would literally never get anywhere ever. jesus.
What’s really cool about this is that cephalopod (octopus, squid, etc.) intelligence evolved completely separately from intelligence in tetrapods (which includes primates, dolphins, crows… basically any other intelligent animals you can think of). Cephalopods are very, very far away from us on the tree of life. For context, you and a starfish are more closely related than you and an octopus. The last common ancestor of humans and cephalopods was the so-called Urbilaterian, the hypothetical first animal with a left-right symmetric body. This animal almost certainly had, at most, an extremely simple nervous system, without anything resembling a brain.
All this is to say that the fact that this octopus appears to be dreaming means one of two things. Either
a) dreaming is a very, very old thing indeed, going directly back to the Urbilaterian. This would mean that almost every animal, from insects to starfish to sea slugs to newts, is likely to have the ability to dream in some capacity or another (unless they have specifically lost it by evolutionary simplification).
or
b) dreaming evolved entirely independently in cephalopods when they developed greater intelligence. This would suggest, at least, that there’s something very fundamental about dreaming related to intelligence itself, which causes it to emerge independently when sufficient intelligence arises.
Needless to say, either of these outcomes would be really very cool.
People don’t talk enough about how easy it is to sleep in the dirt.
Like at a certain point on a dig day you BECOME THE DIRT.
And then comfy lil cozy crevices where you just dug start ~calling your name~
This is my favorite corner of the internet:
BONUS:
Okay but consider: -Very soft (no rocks at all, just buttery smooth, sifted, light, and fluffy soil -Pesky rocks are on the other side of the dirt pile. Don’t even worry about them. -Usually cool to the touch, even on a hot day -You can just sink into it. Like a snow angel. But dirt. Bliss.
…Are spiders not entitled to comfy naps as well?
Besides, when it’s dirt in my area it’s usually either Daddy Long Legs (not my faves because one bit me without provocation once, but they don’t climb into my hair usually), wolf spiders (the coolest of my local arachnids, sometimes even carrying egg sacs like a lady with a big handbag).
Harris Rosenblum
Relic of the Corrupted Blood
2022
Soy based resin, cosmetic prosthetic, latex, french green cosmetic clay, aerosol hairspray, water gilding media (individual serving dehydrated bone broth, french green cosmetic clay, cosmetic kaolin, rabbit skin glue granules, terracotta clay), SD cards (contains archive of World ofWarcraft patch 1.7.0 (corrupted blood plague), 1.7.1 (plague fix) and interstitial script), USG drywall filler, automotive filler primer, wax.