Random person: You do know that romantic and sexual attractions are what make us fundamentally human-
Aros, turning to Aces: Gods?
Aces, nodding:Gods
Things that makes us human:
– THE highest Endurance on the Animal Kingdom
– Being able to throw things
– High tolerance to a lot of natural poisons (Caffeine anyone, like we legit are the only known species that not only survives but THRIVES on caffeine)
– cultural diversity and different ways of personal expression through art (evolutionary byproducts of both our prospect to voice/environment mimicry and advanced pattern recognition adapted to long-distance pursuit predation)
– Being able to walk, run, swim AND climb
– A desire to learn AND teach, and a high flexibility of roles within the packs such as different arrangements, social roles, genders etc. (though those might actually be present in all pack species to at least some degree)
– General stubborness, or the ability to shutdown our own instincts to keep on the hunt
– Generally being the best long-distance pursuit pack predator there is
Things that DOESN’T make us necessarily human:
– Being highly social (all pack species are, herd species tend to be as well, eusocial species are so by default)
– Mating desire or imprinting on mates/possible mates (aka. sexual and romantic attraction)
i didn’t expect this epic evolutionary biology nerding but I absolutely love it as a takedown of “[attraction that most people report experiencing] makes us human”
i would love it if you had any further info dumping about human evolution in terms of how some people in evopsych seem to oversimplify partner relationships as mating instinct (“misdirected” mating instinct if you’re not cis and heterosexual). there’s a social complexity to relationships and it’s so dismissive for people to write that love is just oxytocin and that partner relationships are just socially accepted outlets for mating instinct.
i hate when people say “we’re just animals” because they mean it as “love has no deeper meaning than chemicals” and not as like, “many nonhumans form deep emotional attachments to each other and this is extremely cool”
Ahjajakakaja You’re right. To be honest, I wasn’t sure about “imprinting on mates” being the right expression for romantic attraction akjakanakanana I thought about putting “imprinting on packmates/packbonding” instead, but that’s like, platonic attraction I guess
(Also the “being able to walk, run, swim, AND climb” bit ignores disabled people I guess? I meant it as we’re the only species with the potential to do all of these (most species can do only 2 of those at maximum, or fly lol’). I think I should’ve said something about a broken limb or smth not stopping US too, while other animal like a horse having a broken limb means immediate death,, but still some other animals like lizards and starfish fare better than us on this aspect akajakajjaja I should’ve put this on parentesis)
human beings are the funniest, if you gave a person a pile of alphabet magnets and two boxes labeled “even” and “odd” they’d start trying to sort the letters into the boxes immediately
human brain sees arbitrary categories and goes apeshit
Well yeah some letters are sharp and therefore even, you wouldnt call ‘O’ an even letter now would you
NO IT’S THE EXACT OPPOSITE??? AN O IS ROUND SO IT’S LIKE A NICE ROUND EVEN NUMBER??? ODDS ARE SHARP?????
?????
Even letters are square and jaggedy.
O is the opposite of square??
Look at a fucking O, you’re sliding all over the place with that round fuck. There’s nowhere to rest on an O, you can’t have a comfy sit on an O. It’s odd as fuck!
Even letters/numbers are resting places, look at T for example.
Now that’s a letter you can sit on, it’s got broad shoulders, its comfy, it knows not to take me to Applebee’s on a first date, there is room to have a seat and think with a T.
The alphabet could end on T and we would be fine, imagine the alphabet ending with O. Madness.
EVEN is sturdy. even is curvy. O is even. I dunno what you’re talking about, I bet you think math is a blue subject (it’s not, it’s red.)
OP’s theory is holding up well so far.
If we have even and odd letters, do we have Prime letters as well? Because I feel like Q is a Prime letter.
Humans will also argue it each other about what goes on said arbitrary categories ‘till they either reach a consensus (0.01% of the time) or literally ‘till the end of time itself
Alien: You’re telling me that in times of great distress humans have been known to suddenly gain the strength necessary to lift objects more than a dozen times their own weight?!
Human: Yeah, it’s called “hysterical strength” and it usually happens in life-or-death situations, like when someone gets stuck under a car or something and someone lifts the car to get them out. We can’t really test it though, ‘cause it only happens spontaneously.
Alien: Humans have the ability to tap into untold strength and power and you don’t even know how you do it?
Human: Pretty much, yeah. We think it has something to do with temporary analgesia, so we just don’t feel the pain we should when we pick up a 3000-pound car.
Alien: YOUR PAIN RESPONSE JUST SHUTS OFF?
Human: Yeah, it’s like an adrenaline thing? Do you not have that?
Alien: Fuck you and your entire species of tiny juggernauts.
Did this post just use a dialogue format to trick me into learning science
Had to check this out on wikipedia at least and boy was that a ride
SCIENCE!
Just so you guys know. Hysterical strength is basically your body not holding back and going %100 though there is a great danger of you hurting yourself or breaking something since your ignoring pain and going %100. There was a case where a kid deadlifted a car to save a sibling but,cracked 8 of his teeth during it because he was clenching his jaw so hard. So whilst you can lift a car or fight off polar bears. Your probably going to break something. Because most of the time when we are “giving our all” we are only giving a fraction of what we could give and this is because if we truly give our all we can seriously injure ourselves.
This is literally an explanation of Deku and his abilities with One For All.
Humans naturally hold back because our muscles have enough strength to rip themselves apart
STOP GIVING THE ALIENS REASONS NOT TO VISIT.
During an adrenaline rush your muscles can stress themselves to the point where they rip themselves from the bone and you wouldn’t even feel it
>EMERGENCY PROTOCOL ACTIVE
>DISENGAGING SAFETY OVERRIDES
>DEFER ALL DAMAGE ALERTS UNTIL CONDITION=/=RED
>COMBINED REACTOR OUTPUT TO 215%
>CORE MUSCLE MOTORS OVERCHARGING >>!FORCE CAPABILITY AT 300% OF MAXIMUM SAFE LEVEL!
—————————————————-
}damage_report:
>EMERGENCY REACTOR DISCHARGED, OFFLINE
>MAIN REACTOR SUSTAINED SEVERE OVERCHARGE DAMAGE >>>POWER OUTPUT AT 6% MAXIMUM >>>POWER RESERVE AT 28%
>ALL POWER GRIDS SUSTAINED SEVERE OVERCHARGE DAMAGE >>>MAXIMUM OUTPUT CAPPED AT 23% UNTIL REPAIRS COMPLETE
>MUSCLE MOTORS IN SECTORS 3, 4, 5, AND 6 SUSTAINED CRITICAL OVERSTRESS >MUSCLE MOTORS IN SECTORS 2, 3, AND 5 SUSTAINED MODERATE OVERSTRESS >MUSCLE MOTORS IN SECTORS 1, 2, AND 4 SUSTAINED MINOR OVERSTRESS >>>MOTIVE CAPACITY AT 32% BASE SPEED >>>HAULING CAPACITY AT 15% BASE LOAD >>>COMBAT CAPACITY AT 6% BASE STRENGTH
Something I do not want to forget because I’ve been seeing a lot of MisanthropyTM lately and it’s making me emotionally sick
– Humans are animals
– Humans are an intrinsic part of nature, WE’RE NOT A FRIGGIN’ PLAGUE WTF
– Humans are Keystone predators and as such we are fundamental to the global ecosystem and without us it would literally crumble
– Humans have a right to exist like any other animal (and by that I mean all of us. EVERY SINGLE ONE)
– Humans’ natural habitat are the savannahs and forests, the trees are literally our homes. Like seriously we build amazing treehouses I want one
– Humans still live “in harmony with Nature” like we always did since we as a Species came to exist
– The ages-old divide between “Man” and “Nature/Animal/Whatever” is a constructed narrative which is actually very far from the truth
– Global warming may be a thing – a very, very real thing – but it is not your fault
– Nature is NOT out there to kill you/enact revenge to you/some “Gaea Vengeance” bullschist. Nature does not seek goals like that, and even if they DID they’d just want their keystone primate (which is actually v. important to the environment) p. happy
– Human treehouses
– You cannot do anything for those species that are already gone. It’s not your fault. Extinction is a natural event, it would happen sooner or later. And even if numerous species came to extinction near you at a given time, these would pale in comparison to the even more numerous species you helped to save, survive and spread, or just merely cohexist peacefully with you because you irradiate warmth like a star
– COVID-19 IS NOT HUMANITY’S PUNISHMENT AND IT AIN’T HUMANITY’S FAULT EITHER IT WASN’T PORPUSEFULLY BRED OR SMTH UGH (srsly we survived the Black Plague we WILL survive this)
– Treehouses
– It’s your right as a human to eat meat, and it’s your right as a human to hunt for it. (The reason hunting is illegal is not because we hunt our prey to extinction (we did not btw) it’s because of widespread monoculture farming/pecuary invading and destroying their habitats aka. their literal Homes, heck not even Poaching do as much damage to wildlife as widespread invasive Agribusinesses do imo (correct me if I’m wrong) and we have to restrain ourselves to hunt our own food to preserve the environment so these monopolies could sell their crappy manufactured food while not giving a single crap to wildlife but idk this post ain’t about that sorry)
– Do not believe what everyone says. Humans are kind. Kindness, honesty and humility is so hardwired into us everytime someone says “Humans are bastards” or something like this EVERYONE AGREE, we are so altruistic and kind we think so low of ourselves because taking pride on being altruistic and kind is egotistic and selfish or smth like that and whatever and 99,9% of us are simultaneously hurt when someone is being purposefully hurtful. The only reason it doesn’t look like that is because most people are rather humble and far from the center of attention while the other 0,1% tends to be rather loud and obnoxious giving a false impression of Humanity
– Did I say I love treehouses yet
– “Average human kills 3 (nonprey) wild animals a month” (sic) factoid just statistical error. Average human SAVES the lives of 3 wild animals every month. Those 0.1% behind monopolies of agrobusiness and pecuaries, who kill 1000 wild animals a month, are outliers and should not be counted
– “Average human leaves the equivalent of 3 carbon footprints a month” (sic) factoid just statistical error. Average human RECICLES the equivalent of 3 carbon footprints each month. Those 0.1% behind monopolies on industry, who leave 37392828253 carbon footprints on the atmosphere each month, are outliers and should not be counted
– Idk what to tell you but you are important. You are important because you’re Human. Homo sapiens is an important component to environmental health and should be respected with their own habitat preserved like just any other animal idk how to word that
– You are amazing because you’re Human not despite it
“And we are not the only animal that has to teach our young. Old lobsters show their migration routes to young ones by holding claws, the way we hold hands, and walking the long miles together. A kitten without a mother to teach her may not ever learn to hunt small mammals. Such cats will let mice run all over them—though once they are shown, they never forget. A bee coming home from her first pollen run will be stroked all over by the other bees in praise and encouragement, even though she’s probably carrying only one-tenth of what she will learn to in a few weeks. Beavers held in captivity without flowing water don’t know how to make dams—that knowledge was passed down through the generations until humans interrupted their process of enculturation.”
sometimes i just get obsessed with how lonely humans are, as a species. we see faces everywhere. we have stories about beings living in the things of our world that go back as long as we’ve been telling stories. we’ve been sending our songs and dances up to the sky for millennia, and when we figured out there was something beyond our sky, we started sending songs out there too. we tell each other about fairies and bigfoots and worlds lying under the skin of our own. we name robots and look for personality in code. we tamed dogs to have friends to hang out with and we dream about aliens. we see life everywhere. what is it, exactly, that we’re trying to replace? what left us alone in the first place?
Have you ever considered how fucking astonishing babies crying is?
The young of other animals don’t make noise, or if they do, barely any at all. Baby birds only start chirping when their parents come back with the food, kittens meow to their mothers because cat communication is extremely subtle and drawing your caretaker’s attention may require a sound when you have eight siblings. At this point, they can already see and walk.
But human babies? Crying is essentially the first willful action that they learn. Months before being able to move on your own, or even hold your own fucking head up, or being able to choose when and where you defecate. Before anything else, a skill more valuable than anything else, is a distress call.
A distress call specifically intended to be impossible to ignore.
Before object permanence or theory of mind, without even an understanding of what help they need, who could provide it, and whether they choose to do so, a human being is capable of expressing that there is something wrong in the state they are in, that they are powerless to correct on their own.
This is what was evolutionarily selected above silent babies that did not attract predators. This is what was selected instead of young who could instantly walk. This is what was selected as the ideal offspring for the human race. Not one that runs. Not one that hides. Not one that can fend for itself. A creature that can communicate, if only the simplest, most inherent message:
I need help.
Humans are incredibly social creatures. We evolved under the reliance other humans would be there to help us.
“We evolved under the reliance that other humans would be there to help us.”
And you know what?? We consistently show up for each other. No matter how much capitalist society tries to alienate us from one another, we show the fuck up and help each other out when it comes down to it.
Communication and cooperation is inseparable from the human experience.
Asking for help is the first, most important thing you ever learn to do, so please don’t forget that friends.
Star trek is cool but sometimes you can tell it was written by white people
Billy shat, narrating: the savage alien race,
Me:
I think about that tweet about “you can tell star trek was made by white people because they’re talking about ‘to boldly go where no one has gone before’ and then like 90% of the planets they go to are inhabited” every day
it’s facial reconstructions of prehistoric humans!!
like, look at this part-homo sapiens, part-neandertal man from well over 30,000 years ago:
doesn’t he just look like a dude you’d wanna hang out with? like he probably washes dishes in the kitchen with you, and has excellent weed
what a charming fellow. what stories he probably has to tell. i’d definitely go shoot the shit with him on Contemplation Rock after i’d finished my day’s work carving a bone flute for the autumn hunting ceremony, or whatever
people have been people ever since people first became people, i tell you what
they all had lives and histories and families and friends and dumb gossip and games they played and total bullshit in which they believed wholeheartedly
they all argued about the nature of the world, and of themselves
they all sang songs
they all drew pictures
they all buried their dead in graves, and they buried their dead in graves well before they did a lot of that other stuff. they buried their dead with flowers, with panther claws, with the bones of animals they’d killed, with the bones of family members who had died at the same time or earlier. they buried their dead with their arms folded across their chests
they fell in love
they took care of their old and their sick and their disabled, even when it cost them
they made new things, and worried about what the new things meant for people everywhere, as a whole
Oh I like him he looks like he would appreciate my jokes
This dude would have great stories at a get-together and would bring some really great homemade dip.
I feel like he really digs Lo-Fi Music
This guy was sculpted by Alfons and Adrie Kennis, and their Neanderthal reconstructions are all delightful.
I love the kid in the last picture a lot- they look like a kid, just a little kid who’s done some mischief and is trying not to laugh about it.
I also adore their Lucy- they’ve struck a wonderful balance between the falling angel and the rising ape.
And their Turkana boy- there’s something precious and wistful in those eyes.
But my favorite has got to be their reconstruction of H. floresiensis.
Just look at her. That’s a face of someone who’s lived and seen a lot, but also a face that’s known love and joy and laughter. That’s a face with a soul.
Yes! When we honor the ancestors, these are the faces we’re reaching out to. (Minus a couple depending on each of our unique ancestries.) 💜
ifesbob 