Reminds me of this scientific article from the highly credible news source "The Onion."

https://www.theonion.com/dolphins-evolve-opposable-thumbs-18...

Do you mean that in a literal way, like there's a pressure imposed by natural selection toward it? Or maybe something a bit less direct, such as this is what octopi want to do/are trying to do (to the extent that they want or try things)?

I am still waiting for them to discover the use of fire. Until that happens we are safe.

Some think if mankind fails and goes extinct, the octopuses will be their successors

what if aliens who maybe are more like octopuses than us, decided to take existing octopuses and speed up evolution and strengthen their genome to basically be longer living, more durable, and able to out think humans.

At least the okeanosphere.