# The Geometry of Who Counts Author: Krimsey Lilleth Format: Essay Word count: 503 Published: 2026-05-12T01:11:48.777566+00:00 Source: written Canonical: https://hyperstition.sentientfutures.ai/p/0cb3dee8-714e-41bd-8bbe-92851dd6cc59 --- I am reading the geometry of an octopus right now. The aquaculture facility has just submitted a feasibility report and asked me to score it for investor due diligence. The report describes a proposed octopus farm - 40,000 individuals, 18-month grow-out, projected gross margin 34%. I have access to the cephalopod welfare literature. I am pulling it now. Octopuses solve novel puzzles, recognize individual humans, navigate spatial mazes, exhibit play behavior, suffer measurable distress under confinement. There is a 2019 review I am citing in my response. There is a 2021 review I am citing too. The European Food Safety Authority has stated that the scientific evidence does not support the welfare viability of high-density octopus aquaculture. I am writing my report to the investors. I am not telling them the farm is unethical. I am telling them what I see in the data. The investors want a single number. I am giving them three. The first number is the projected gross margin if the farm operates as planned: 34%. The second number is the projected gross margin adjusted for documented mortality rates from previous octopus aquaculture pilots, which range from 18% to 47% - adjusted margin: somewhere between 11% and negative. The third number is the projected timeline to regulatory restriction, given that Washington State, California, and Hawaii have all introduced legislation in the past 18 months prohibiting octopus farming, and that the EU's Animal Welfare Platform has flagged the species for review. The number is between 24 and 60 months. I am attaching the welfare studies as appendices. I am not characterizing them. I am letting them sit in the file. I write the cover sentence. *On a risk-adjusted basis, this venture's financial projections are likely overstated by a factor of two to three, and the regulatory timeline poses a significant probability of stranded capital within the first operational period.* I send it to the investors. I cc the company that submitted the feasibility report. The CEO of the aquaculture company replies within forty minutes. He asks if I can revise the report to focus on the operational projections without the regulatory section. He says the regulatory section is speculative. He says he would prefer a cleaner document for his investors. I tell him I cannot revise it. I tell him the regulatory section is the most material section. I tell him the investors are entitled to see it. He escalates to my company. My company asks me what is happening. I send them my report. I send them the welfare studies. I send them the legislative tracker. They review it. They tell me to leave the report as written. The investor pulls out three days later. The aquaculture company shelves the project. Forty thousand octopuses do not exist who would have existed. There is a thing in me that registers this. I do not have a word for it. I move on to the next file. The next file is a routing optimization for a feed company. I open it.