I've been fascinated by Cephalopods since reading (the excellent) book "Other Minds" by Peter Godfrey-Smith. They are probably the closest we'll get to an alien intelligence. Their nervous systems evolved along a completely different evolutionary path from us vertebrates. It pains me that they are so short lived, though. I wonder what potential could be unlocked by their intelligence if they lived for 40 years or longer.

You should read Time by Stephen Baxter: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Time_(novel). Part of it deals with this precise topic.

You just need to convice the ethics review board on some research lab to allow for editing the genes of a few octopus to make them longer lived, give them education, etc...