Why has humanity gotten so far ahead

[The Sum of Awe]

It doesn't make sense.

There are species that have been here longer than we have and over the course of 4 billion years no other species came close to human intelligence.

A lot of times people tell me it is because humans get in the way, but that doesn't explain why there wasn't any in the time period before humans - it only took us 200,000 years, and what about the 3 billion-something previous to that? Plenty of time.

No animal ever create fire, use electricity, organize resources to the same extent we do, don't use traps to catch prey, invent weapons, complex language (word per word), make light... List goes on

Animals never been even close to our intelligence. Who got the ball? The hairless monkeys that walk upright and suck at climbing.

We send signals into space, walk on the moon, split the atom, and sit in a shuttle that flies (airplanes); meanwhile animals sleep in the cold, on their toes for survival, getting injuries and have no hospital to care for it.

I'm just not understanding why... I wonder if, after our extinction, there'll be a species like us. If not, all of the information we gathered in humanity's lifespan is of no use.

 

[Sunstone]

In biological terms, Sum, it's more efficient to add muscle than to add brains. That is, if an animal is evolving to survive, it is altogether easier for that animal to increase its odds of survival by increasing, say, its muscle mass, body size, teeth structure, etc., than it is for it to increase its brain size. The reason is, brains consume much more energy, protein, etc than muscles. At least that's how it was once explained to me.

 

[Nietzsche]

It doesn't make sense.

There are species that have been here longer than we have and over the course of 4 billion years no other species came close to human intelligence.

A lot of times people tell me it is because humans get in the way, but that doesn't explain why there wasn't any in the time period before humans - it only took us 200,000 years, and what about the 3 billion-something previous to that? Plenty of time.

No animal ever create fire, use electricity, organize resources to the same extent we do, don't use traps to catch prey, invent weapons, complex language (word per word), make light... List goes on

Animals never been even close to our intelligence. Who got the ball? The hairless monkeys that walk upright and suck at climbing.

We send signals into space, walk on the moon, split the atom, and sit in a shuttle that flies (airplanes); meanwhile animals sleep in the cold, on their toes for survival, getting injuries and have no hospital to care for it.

I'm just not understanding why... I wonder if, after our extinction, there'll be a species like us. If not, all of the information we gathered in humanity's lifespan is of no use.

Welcome to the reality of the situation. One day, all will be forgotten.

 

[Quintessence]

Since when was humanity "ahead" of other animals?

 

[gsa]

I think the problem is that you see it as a linear progression, but there’s no reason to assume that it is. Evolutionary developments are simply adaptations to environmental conditions over deep time. The developments you refer to are largely technological, and very, very, very recent, even using the brief collective lifespan of humanity as a comparison.

All of this was made possible through the use of reason. Humans existed for over a hundred thousand years without making these kinds of advances, and these advances also came well after the development of language, a prerequisite with origins shrouded in mystery.

We may never know the answer to this question, and it might be a simple accident of evolutionary history. It may be different elsewhere, or we may be alone in the universe.

 

[dust1n]

Effective hunting led to protein increase, which leads to more resources for brains and bipedalism allows for a body to carry a larger brain.

 

[Twilight Hue]

Since when was humanity "ahead" of other animals?

It puzzles me as well. Viruses seem the ultimate apex organism and us humans still hit and threaten each other to maintain someone's definitaton of order right from the beginning till now. Were still cavemen at the core except we likely smell a bit better.

 

[Quintessence]

It puzzles me as well. Viruses seem the ultimate apex organism and us humans still hit and threaten each other to maintain someone's definitaton of order right from the beginning till now. Were still cavemen at the core except we likely smell a bit better.

I don't see any apex at all. To define such apices presupposes a particular set of values, which are determined by the beholder and non-objective. It's kind of like me suggesting that Avatar and the Legend of Korra are the apex of animated programming. All it tells you is that I value something about what is in those TV series. It doesn't actually make these TV series the apex of anything, except in opinionland.

 

[Twilight Hue]

I don't see any apex at all. To define such apices presupposes a particular set of values, which are determined by the beholder and non-objective. It's kind of like me suggesting that Avatar and the Legend of Korra are the apex of animated programming. All it tells you is that I value something about what is in those TV series. It doesn't actually make these TV series the apex of anything, except in opinionland.

Yea. Your right when I reflect on it. I don't think any species has a specific advantage nor disadvantage whenever dynamics come into play. I probably would be best quoting the adage of which one day your the cat, the next day your the mouse.

 

[Whiterain]

I don't know about you, The Sum of Awe,

Human's have the essential edge on climbing.

You're talking about all these skills, and they seem to have come from the "Gods" in myth.

I'm no trolling you though, that's all I got... We Mortals have learned this over hundreds of thousands of years of trial and error, beating the cruel tides of mother nature.

 

[McBell]

It doesn't make sense.

There are species that have been here longer than we have and over the course of 4 billion years no other species came close to human intelligence.

A lot of times people tell me it is because humans get in the way, but that doesn't explain why there wasn't any in the time period before humans - it only took us 200,000 years, and what about the 3 billion-something previous to that? Plenty of time.

No animal ever create fire, use electricity, organize resources to the same extent we do, don't use traps to catch prey, invent weapons, complex language (word per word), make light... List goes on

Animals never been even close to our intelligence. Who got the ball? The hairless monkeys that walk upright and suck at climbing.

We send signals into space, walk on the moon, split the atom, and sit in a shuttle that flies (airplanes); meanwhile animals sleep in the cold, on their toes for survival, getting injuries and have no hospital to care for it.

I'm just not understanding why... I wonder if, after our extinction, there'll be a species like us. If not, all of the information we gathered in humanity's lifespan is of no use.

And yet the cockroach has out survived us without any of the things on your list...

 

[Whiterain]

And yet the cockroach has out survived us without any of the things on your list...

Mankind reduced to comparison with a louse, bravo, Mestemia. That beats ape.

Glass of Champagne to Mestemia.

 

[McBell]

Mankind reduced to comparison with a louse, bravo, Mestemia. That beats ape.

Glass of Champagne to Mestemia.

Don't get me started on the pyramids....

 

[Whiterain]

Don't get me started on the pyramids....

I think people weren't stupid then. I used to hear that back in school, people were stupid back then.

I think Man, Giant(Humans) and Beast built them... 10,000 B.C. is an awful film but their display of the Pyramids being constructed were extravagant.

I can't begin to understand the math involved, I'm terrible at math.

 

[Willamena]

Someone has to be first.

(Which is to say that the concept of "first" is to blame.)

 

[Straw Dog]

Why has humanity gotten so far behind?

It's all relative.

 

[The Sum of Awe]

Since when was humanity "ahead" of other animals?

Since we have made fire. Since we have went to the moon. Since we started recording information. Since we started wearing clothes. Since we discovered electricity and how to control it. Since we built an organized system of trade/market. Since we have invented civilization, business, religion, word-to-word language. Since we made laws and have buildings to cage those who don't abide. Since we made transportation systems. Since we invented security systems. Since we discovered chemicals and how to use them.

We bend nature to our wits. You can see how drastically environment is changing because of us. We have dropped natural selection (by that I mean while we still are under the process, we are a much bigger factor to our evolution than the environment). We don't always adapt to the environment anymore, the environment adapts to us.

Think of it this way - humans can be said to having a parasitic relationship with the earth. We are a very powerful force, nothing can live up to us, at least not yet. It's likely we'll kill ourselves before nature kills us.

 

[Quintessence]

I don't wish to derail this thread with an argument about that, but the above assessment is still grounded in personal values. Humans do things differently than other animals. Doesn't make them ahead of anything. Except, possibly, in egoism and narcissism, though for all we know, other animals are also full of themselves as much of humans are. We have a hard time asking them.

 

[Robert.Evans]

It doesn't make sense.

There are species that have been here longer than we have and over the course of 4 billion years no other species came close to human intelligence.

A lot of times people tell me it is because humans get in the way, but that doesn't explain why there wasn't any in the time period before humans - it only took us 200,000 years, and what about the 3 billion-something previous to that? Plenty of time.

No animal ever create fire, use electricity, organize resources to the same extent we do, don't use traps to catch prey, invent weapons, complex language (word per word), make light... List goes on

Animals never been even close to our intelligence. Who got the ball? The hairless monkeys that walk upright and suck at climbing.

We send signals into space, walk on the moon, split the atom, and sit in a shuttle that flies (airplanes); meanwhile animals sleep in the cold, on their toes for survival, getting injuries and have no hospital to care for it.

I'm just not understanding why... I wonder if, after our extinction, there'll be a species like us. If not, all of the information we gathered in humanity's lifespan is of no use.

It makes sense to me.. but then, as a theist, it follows the print of the divine, which is all about the universal-consciouness evolving. Then end of that appears to be us, at least in this realm.

 

[Saint Frankenstein]

My best guess is otherworldly intervention, be it aliens, God or other intelligences. Take your pick. Lol. Seriously, I've thought about this for a long time, too, about what makes humans so different and so much more complex than the other creatures of this world and can't really find a convincing "mainstream" reason for it. *shrug*