Wow, no comments yet on this one? Very surprised.
I had a feeling about this story and wanted to check what other people thought.
Over the past few years, there's been research that shows octopus genes are unusual, so I was wondering if this story was drawing on that. The implication in the story being that octopuses were brought to Earth by the first wave of humans (who had contaminated Earth way back when). Contemporary octopuses are, therefore, the descendants of the octopuses in the story. And we are the descendants of the second wave of humans, that got here after the humans that had been abandoned by the first wave had died, but before the synchronous collapse of the first wave's civilization, leaving us marooned here in a primitive technological state. Now that we are regaining lost technology, the octopuses are asking/warning us to be careful in our dealings with them.
Anybody else get this idea, or am I completely out there?