Cuttlefish 'talk' with their arms, study reveals

Perceived intelligence and interaction with cuttlefish

• Multiple commenters treat cuttlefish as clearly intelligent, even “playful,” citing scuba/skin-diving encounters where the animals seemed curious and responsive.
• Some note how visually sophisticated camouflage and apparent attention to humans suggest “a lot going on behind those eyes.”

What counts as “communication” vs “talk”

• A major thread debates whether arm/tentacle displays merit terms like “talk” or even “communication.”
• One camp says: any behavior that changes another’s behavior (e.g., finger drumming annoying a coworker) is communication; intent is not required.
• Another insists that “communication system” is a stronger claim than simple stimulus–response, and that science should be precise: reactions alone don’t prove a structured system or conscious message-passing.
• Several clarify a hierarchy: broad “communication” (signals, body language, involuntary cues) vs narrower “talk”/language (complex symbolic systems like human speech).

Nonverbal communication and sign language

• Commenters emphasize how much human meaning is carried nonverbally—gestures, facial expression, posture.
• There is pushback against dismissing sign languages as “just for people who can’t speak”; others highlight sign as its own rich, aesthetic, high‑bandwidth language, comparable to dance or opera.
• Some discuss whether hearing people can appreciate signed performance as fully as vocal music, with disagreement about how widespread that appreciation is.

Ethics of eating intelligent animals

• Several argue people should stop eating cuttlefish and large octopuses given their apparent intelligence; parallels are drawn to eating pets.
• Others point out that pigs and birds are also highly intelligent, questioning where lines are drawn.
• A long subthread debates whether refusing to eat certain animals is cultural preference vs moral stance based on intelligence or sentience.
• Comparisons to slavery or abuse are used by some to argue animal agriculture is a serious moral failing; others reject such analogies as oversimplifying complex tradeoffs of culture, biology, and necessity.

Vegetarianism, dairy, and animal welfare

• One commenter says concern for sentience led to vegetarianism.
• Another argues dairy can be more harmful than meat per calorie, listing artificial insemination, calf separation, health issues, mutilations, and early culling.
• There’s discussion of what would practically happen if dairy demand disappeared: some note cows are now dependent on humans; others say gradual demand decline allows managed herd reduction.

Sentience, sapience, and consciousness

• A side debate distinguishes sentience (capacity to feel, respond to pain) from sapience (higher cognition), with the claim that many organisms are sentient but not sapient.
• One view holds that only humans have true language; animal “communication” may lack consciously processed meaning.
• Another angle, referencing science fiction, suggests complex behavior and intelligence could exist without human‑like consciousness.

Cultural references and humor

• Comments invoke Dr. Dolittle, modern novels about cephalopods, and science‑fiction aliens to explore nonhuman communication.
• Jokes play on Italians’ hand gestures, expectations of “cuddling” from “cuttlefish,” and even tongue‑in‑cheek defenses of cannibalism, alongside a brief factual digression on prion risks from human meat.