A Thought

Here's something I pondered about while I was trying to sleep the other night.

Humans tend to think of themselves as superior to other animals, and one of the main reasons is because we think of ourselves as clean. And I guess it's true, humans are cleaner than a lot of other species, but does that make us superior? Well, think of it this way: Humans clean themselves and their surroundings because they have to, or they'll get ill. Humans have much weaker immune systems than most animals. Now, consider the hippo. Hippos spend nearly all their time bathing in muddy water and marking their territory by spraying their shit like a propeller. And you don't see them getting ill. Or what about chimpanzees? In the wild, you never see them taking baths or cooking their food to get rid of germs. That's because germs won't kill them anywhere near as easily. They have badass immune systems.

The way I see it, if you can be dirty and cope with it, you're way superior to a species that constantly has to keep its surroundings clean. Requiring a totally clean environment is a sign of weakness.

In fact, when you think about it, a lot of things that distinguish humans as "superior" do, in fact, show just how weak humans really are. What about electricity? Humans would probably die out if they were no longer able to use it. Pretty much all other life on Earth would cope just fine. Or clothes. Most animals are secure enough about their sexuality to go around without covering their genitals, but humans are so ashamed of sex that they have to cover themselves up. That, and they would get very cold without wearing clothes, since the thickness of their body hair has been reduced through evolution.

Anyway, I better stop before this turns into a rant. And I will say this now, I'm not trolling. I feel that all this stuff is true. Humans need to wake up.

is this about humanity needing something?

what a hippie

you forgot to mention humans are the only species in need of vaccines.

such a paradox

those who are the cleanest, who keep the cleanest environments and come up with the most advanced medicine techniques end up suffering from massive deceases and killing themselves, and other animals as well.

humans are the most faulty and imperfect species that has ever existed on this planet.

  On 10/15/2010 at 12:06 AM, BCM said:

is this about humanity needing something?

trust me, if you asked the average human being what makes them feel superior to other animals on Earth they wouldn't say it's because we're cleaner, they'd probably just point at a car or a hospital.

PHAT RAVE MATE

YOUR HANDS AND FEET ARE MANGOES

A machine gun would kill any horse. If you had a machine gun and a horse wanted to kill you, you could just shoot it. Think about it.

Humans are also the only lifeform that post on WATMM, so be careful what you say.

cave men weren't cleaner, didn't shower regularly, had lots of parasites, could eat fresh bone marrow from a rotting carcasses. I think your clean idea needs to put humanity into the broader context of it's whole history mate. Back then, our dietary tracts were probably tougher and our immune system better trained on a broader range of challenges than we can expect it to have to handle these days.

So anyway what i mean is,

who you callin' weak !!

  On 10/15/2010 at 12:07 AM, ruiagnelo said:

humans are the most faulty and imperfect species that has ever existed on this planet.

Unbelievably idiotic statement to make considering how many known (nothing to say of the unknown) species have lived and died off in this planets history. The very idea of a "perfect species" is absolute nonsense.

Also pretending like animals never get sick is also ridiculous. Whats the first thing you need to do when you adopt a pet or bring an animal into the zoo? vaccinate it. There are scores of fungal and bacterial bodies that sicken and kill every single species on this planet. Where do we get avian flu from? fucking aviators? It's pretty obvious when you put any species into an environtment it's not made to live in, it keels over and dies without external help. Youre also totally ignoring the fact that most species have mechanisms to keep themselves clean, because if they dont, they get sick and die!

People bitch about weakened immune systems but frankly whats there to complain about when lifespan is pretty much doubled and infant mortality is a fraction of what it used to be.

  On 10/15/2010 at 2:35 AM, 24ourange said:

  On 10/15/2010 at 12:07 AM, ruiagnelo said:

humans are the most faulty and imperfect species that has ever existed on this planet.

 

Unbelievably idiotic statement to make considering how many known (nothing to say of the unknown) species have lived and died off in this planets history. The very idea of a "perfect species" is absolute nonsense.

 

Also pretending like animals never get sick is also ridiculous. Whats the first thing you need to do when you adopt a pet or bring an animal into the zoo? vaccinate it. There are scores of fungal and bacterial bodies that sicken and kill every single species on this planet. Where do we get avian flu from? fucking aviators? It's pretty obvious when you put any species into an environtment it's not made to live in, it keels over and dies without external help. Youre also totally ignoring the fact that most species have mechanisms to keep themselves clean, because if they dont, they get sick and die!

 

People bitch about weakened immune systems but frankly whats there to complain about when lifespan is pretty much doubled and infant mortality is a fraction of what it used to be.

animals are vaccinated in the zoo because they are entering our deceased human world.

it's like they are cleaned at the doorstep for later exhibition.

environmental pollution, biodiversity killing, extremely excessive natural resource appropriation, war, you name it..

just think of one animal that is worst than men, and then you might understand what i try to say in that sentence you quoted from me.

  On 10/15/2010 at 2:44 AM, ruiagnelo said:

just think of one animal that is worst than men, and then you might understand what i try to say in that sentence you quoted from me.

Surely there is some sort of biting insect that doesn't look cool.

whatever it is your smoking, pass it here

good point sir

  On 10/15/2010 at 2:44 AM, ruiagnelo said:

animals are vaccinated in the zoo because they are entering our deceased human world.

it's like they are cleaned at the doorstep for later exhibition.

 

 

environmental pollution, biodiversity killing, extremely excessive natural resource appropriation, war, you name it..

 

 

just think of one animal that is worst than men, and then you might understand what i try to say in that sentence you quoted from me.

no, animals are vaccinated because they are being brought from their dirty disgusting world into a dirty disgusting world that they're not adapted to. it doesn't matter if you're bringing them from or to a human or animal environment, they can recieve diseases as as well as transmit them.

Art, beauty, science, technology, self consciousness, logic rational thought, peace, culture, prosperity, education, space travel, medicine, math, language....

Just think of one animal that has done better than man. non-human animals don't even have the capacity to practice restraint or moderation, they are limited by their environments just like us. Don't get me wrong, we cause fucking misery and chaos but animals absolutely do as well. The world never was, or ever will be a place of harmony and balance.

Even though i wasnt speaking biologically, i'd say our adaptations for survival surpass the majority of the animal kingdom. I'm not trying to hold individual animals up to each other and trying to decide "who wins here, and who wins there" because most all animals have truly impressive ways of surviving their environments. But we've adapted to do more than just survive, we have choice and can manipulate our fates, which is something no other species can lay claim to.

  Quote

Western humans have created a 100% artificial diet that specifically does its consumers harm over the long term. So the contradiction of 15 prescription medicines to keep eating the same dangerous and totally "nonfood" products starts to make us look a little funny.

i dont know why this is relevant? The diets of dumb fat fucks is an individual choice and a cultural issue. There are plenty of us who eat healthily. Troon photosynthesizes his own sugars and drinks green tea.

  Quote

2. Insect colonies show hitherto unbelievable organization and utility to the point that a worker ant does exactly and perfectly what it was intended to do and the same for other organizational members.

 

Think about any company or human resources operation. They need that ant's organization to turn a profit--fuck, any honey bee colony would be a nearly 100% profit margin affair if exploded to the human scale. Instead, we tolerate all these fucking stupid contradictions like holding on to employees that are a total drag in fear of litigation and pay just one CEO millions of times the average income whether the company does well or poorly.

Are you really jealous of ants? Maybe think humans would be better off like them? Humans are perfectly capable of this "100% profit margin" but it takes away the very essence of what makes us human and individuals. It's why we make machines!

so in response to the OP's premise, what does that make us when we leave earth's orbit. /thrad

humans may come up with the most advanced tools, but we sure screw up more than any other animal. if it was nothing but other animals, global warming probably wouldn't have happened

if certain jellyfish haven't changed in billions of years, does that mean they are near perfect creatures?

  24ourange said:

non-human animals don't even have the capacity to practice restraint or moderation, they are limited by their environments just like us.

http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn12517-chimps-keep-busy-to-control-their-urges.html

This New Scientist article shows that chimpanzees will spend time distracting themselves with other activities to avoid giving into temptation.

  Quote

A food dispenser inside each of the animals' cages would release a piece of Skittles candy into a container within their reach continuously every 30 seconds, beeping to alert them each time. The chimps could choose either to take the sweet immediately from the container, in which case the machine would stop dispensing, or they could wait and receive many more treats.

 

After being trained up to anticipate sweets and without anything to busy themselves, the chimps would wait 6 minutes on average before giving in and taking the candy. So on average they would get 12 Skittles.

 

However, when researchers gave the chimps "toys" that the animals find entertaining, such as old celebrity magazines and toothbrushes, they succeeded in waiting about 50% longer - around 9 minutes - before pouncing on the candy. "They actually enjoy brushing their teeth," says Evans.

 

And the longer the chimps played with the toys, the longer they were able to control their urge to go after the treats and the more candy they would get.

It seems that after my above post, no-one wants to discuss the issues in this thread anymore. Maybe I just pwned 24ourange so hard that everyone is too scared to post, I don't know.

Yes we're different from most animals. Derp.

It is silly to argue about who is superior, we have many strengths over the rest of the animal kingdom as well as weaknesses.

As for the human race dying out from lack of electricity...LOL.

I know people irl who live like that or have lived like that before. Have you ever been camping?

  On 10/15/2010 at 4:53 AM, 24ourange said:

Even though i wasnt speaking biologically, i'd say our adaptations for survival surpass the majority of the animal kingdom. I'm not trying to hold individual animals up to each other and trying to decide "who wins here, and who wins there" because most all animals have truly impressive ways of surviving their environments. But we've adapted to do more than just survive, we have choice and can manipulate our fates, which is something no other species can lay claim to.

A. "Surviving their environments" can mean two different things : Surviving to usual condition and surviving to extreme conditions. What if the average temperature on earth suddenly becomes 80°C ? I guess only bacteria can survive such a scenario.

B. Some animals have stopped evolving : crocodiles, sharks. For example sharks have amazing mechanisms to prevent cancers.

C. "we have choice and can manipulate our fates". waht do you mean ? Do not ants that sacrifice to help their mates cross the river or birds that migrate to avoid a cold winter manipulate their own fate ? And what about the animals that flew away from the tsunami while humans were still enjoying a sunbath ?

On a more general not, i'd say that your opinion is tinted by the Christian idea that man is at the center of the universe. Concerning the fact that animals have no control over their fate, or that they are not conscious, I think the dudes that wrote/interpreted the bible chose at one point not to allow animals to go to heaven (otherwise that would have been a fucking mess, imagine if the priest had to do 30 ceremonies a day). Thus they decided animals don't have souls.

This thread is so much lolz. No point in arguing truth in ignorance.