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Canonical: https://semiotic.nteract.io/examples/octopus-metaphor
The Octopus: It has its tentacles in everything
The octopus is one of the oldest system diagrams that refuses to admit it is a diagram. A head names the actor, each arm names a channel of influence, and the viewer is asked to read reach as responsibility. That makes it a useful historical metaphor for information visualization, and a risky one: the same grammar that clarifies a system can also make every remote event look controlled by a single hidden body.
This example turns that metaphor back into Semiotic data. It begins with the moral network from the old national-waste octopus, moves through the imperial octopus map, and ends with the joke fromAnimalia.jsmade literal: Semiotic as a many-armed chart system.
Network metaphorA small system with a body
The first source image is not really a picture of an animal. It is a network: five named targets connected to one central cause. The custom layout keeps those targets as data nodes, draws the visible arms in SVG, and emits invisible hit targets so the sketch remains hoverable, keyboard navigable, and exportable.
Data drives the targets and tentacle paths. The visible drawing changes if the nodes change, but the chart keeps the interaction model of a network diagram.Geographic metaphorThe octopus map as persuasive cartography
Octopus maps turn geography into indictment: distance becomes reach, routes become grasp, and the map's empty water is filled with red arms. Recent visualization research has described the genre as a visual argument, not just a decorative map. This remake uses a GeoCustomChart: Natural Earth countries are projected by GeoFrame, while the red routes are generated from the dated possession list below.
For a current research treatment, seeThe Many Tendrils of the Octopus Map.
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1609Bermudas1623Neu-Fundland1650S. Helena1659Jamaica1696Kalkutta1704Gibraltar1788Sidney
1796Colombo1796Guyana1800Kap der guten Hoffnung1800Malta1769Bombay1824Singapore1833Neu-Seeland
1839Falkland-Inseln1842Hongkong1848Vancouver1854Aden1859Queensland1878Cypern1882Suez
1886Neu-Guinea1890Sansibar1904Tonga Inseln1914Calais1917Archangelsk1917Kronstadt
System portraitSemiotic is an octopus
The closing diagram flips the metaphor. The central body is not a villainous power but a library with five frame arms. The new physics arm holds process-driven chart HOCs beside XY, Ordinal, Network, and Geo. Each arm holds a smaller frame-octopus, and each small octopus holds bars for the chart HOCs built on that frame. The data comes from the same architecture table used elsewhere in the examples section.
This is still a network custom layout: the visible octopuses and bars are overlays, while transparent scene nodes preserve hover, focus, tooltips, and the accessible data table.