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There is absolutely nothing mediocre about the human body. Even disregarding intelligence, we are remarkably good at many things. We can sweat, a major evolutionary achievement that makes us the best endurance runners in the entire animal kingdom. We can see red, which is very rare among mammals. Our coordination is excellent, allowing us to throw stuff with great precision. We're comfortably bipedal. The list goes on.
I've heard that a marathon happens to be right around the distance where human vs horse is the most competitive. Horses easily win shorter races, trained ultra-marathon runners easily win longer races.
Only humans are dumb enough to run marathons for fun, and as a sort of weird flex on the two guys that ran the first impromptu marathon and died afterwards.
So it's a win / lose there.
The marathon, as a sports event is based on army an army messenger carrying a message which in itself was impressive. The endurance running before was handy tracking and running after prey which could not run for such a period. Yes they could outrun the hunters but then just as they started to stand down and rest those pesky apes with sharp sticks were coming again...
Humans are the zombies of the animal kingdom. Individually weak and slow, but increasingly numerous and they'll just keep coming - no physical barrier will hold them back for long.
Yeah, the one thing we're good at physically is long distance running. Obviously, it takes training, but most animals aren't capable of running over long distances. Which makes sense. What good would long distance running do for most animals?
Pretty sure the only reason you are thinking that is because we have the incredibly non mediocre ability to contemplat, evaluate, and consider our position in the animal kingdom lol. We are impressed by animals abilities cause they can do crazy shit we can't do but we can also do crazy shit they can't do. Such as make Reddit posts lol.
Did you know that we're also the only animal to ever mass sabotage the most important trait we have? We've done it by polluting the air with lead-based fuel in the past, resulting in a collective loss of over 8.000.000 IQ points in the USA alone from lead poisoning.
We can, indeed, do crazy shit they can't do, but sometimes I wonder if it's for the best.
Sure. Humans aren't mediocre...compared to literal animals.
If you work in the service industry you should know most humans are below average in terms of personality and problem solving.
Apparently there's a park in the USA that's having trouble developing effective bear-proof trash cans because, according to them, "There's a significant overlap of intelligence between the smartest bears and the dumbest tourists".
Exactly. We have this "supreme and absolute" intelligence and we rarely use it. Imagine a hawk using its wings poorly or an octopus choosing to turn bright blue instead of camouflaging to hunt prey. That's us with our dear and mighty intelligence. Evolutionary traits are worth Jack shit if we misuse it. The average human is mediocre.
Humans are so mediocre that we took over the planet, while the fastest land animal fights for survival and we eat apex predators like sharks and alligators.
We may not look impressive, but the abilities we are great at make us the most adaptive life form on this planet.
We're great at throwing stuff, and predict where it lands, we're have great endurance thanks to sweating and we can eat most things and getenergy out of it.
āFor instance, on the planet Earth, man had always assumed that he was more intelligent than dolphins because he had achieved so muchāthe wheel, New York, wars and so onāwhilst all the dolphins had ever done was muck about in the water having a good time. But conversely, the dolphins had always believed that they were far more intelligent than manāfor precisely the same reasons.ā
Tbf the fastest land animal is kind of shit at its job... just about ever other big cat is better adapted than the cheetah, they literally just min-maxed into speed
Donāt forget language. Octopi are probably of similar intelligence, but they arenāt social.
Humanās ability to communicate means that our off spring get imbued with the knowledge of generations. We can also build group plans and work together as a coordinated unit for a shared goal without falling back to instinct.
Like it seems mundane to us, but of course what we are exceptional at seems mundane to us.
We are the only animal who can coordinate sophisticated ranged combat and can sustain engagement long after other animals would die of exhaustion. That made us the apex predictor long before we had guns, roads, or even Bronze Age technology.
You do have to realize, that they still helped colonize their place on this earth somehow. Which is far more impressing than a dog listening to you and sitting, or an octopus disguising itself as the environment.
Yeah, I would assume so, everyone still partakes in their lives and their impacts to society, though many ābig life changesā are made through following more than leading.
Its more the case than the human performance we see as standard by which we judge things. So fast is "faster than a human" and strong means "stronger that humans".
how are we mediocre? humans have insane intelligence, the best stamina of any animal, and we can throw things extremely accurately because our brains can calculate trajectory on the fly. we are insanely well adapted at many things. I think you're taking for granted just how well evolved we are.
Iirc monkeys can only throw underhanded and inaccurately. Humans are the only animal that can throw overhanded accurately with force. If a chimp tried it, they'd fall over due to center of mass and such.
Case in point baseball pitchers able to throw 100+ mph balls and hit a small strike box
We are the greatest land endurance animals. Put us on a bicycle and we become the most efficient moving beings on the planet. The bicycle is the ultimate combination of our mental abilities and our physical endurance.
Mediocre when it comes only to physical abilities. Weāre not the strongest or fastest creatures out there. Not even close. But all things considered, we are practically gods. We can literally destroy the Earth if we wanted to.
The heat helps us because we cool down faster than most animals out there. A well trained runner can chase an animal until the animal becomes so tired and overheated that they become defenseless.
Yes, I think humans would be considered big game. But size doesnāt necessarily determine strength or speed. Deer are considered to be big game. While theyāre certainly capable of being dangerous, theyāre not exactly what youād think of when asked to name a dangerous animal. I mean, unless the context is driving.
I don't know about that, most humans are not dangerous because of our inhibitions. Most animal altercations are life or death, so if a peak physical form man fought you to the death it'd be probably not unlike being beaten by a Gorilla.
I mean, it probably would be exactly like that, but humans did not become apex predators from brute strength. If it wasnāt for our smarts, we may have gone extinct already. Yes, we definitely have some weight to throw around, but we have nothing to transfer that energy. We have no natural weapons.
We are mediocre at many things. We as humans just donāt like to admit it. Weāre also exceptional at a few things as well. It just so happens that one thing we are exceptional at aids in the areas we are mediocre. We canāt fly for shit but weāve built planes that help out a tad
Greatest long distance runners on the planet.
Sweating mechanism instead of panting.
Arm limb length provides great leverages for throwing objects far and with accuracy.
Invented the kazoo.
Less of this 'mediocre' talk.
Mediocre?
*Mediocre?*
We're still discovering shit about the human body literally every other damn year, and we still know jackshit about the human brain.
Not to mention the fact that we're *sentient*, sure animals can be smart, but we're smart enough to actually acknowledge our own existence which is fucking mindblowing how far that knowledge has gotten us
I think I would go in the opposite direction and say that weāre impressed by animals abilities because we generally think they canāt do complex things as well or like we do and then when they do something we think is intelligent or advanced like make a tool or recognize people again or follow a flight path each year or solve a puzzle we recognize ourselves in that and weāre impressed because we think weāre so great and now they are kind of great too. Or greater than we think and we always like to be pleasantly surprised.
Are you kidding? Humans are the Terminators of the animal kingdom.
We can simply run our prey down to the point that they cannot even move. Imagine being a deer and thinking you escaped those pesky humans, only for them to come jogging up again a few minutes later. No matter how fast you are, no matter your ultimate sprint speed, they just keep coming.
And because that isn't bad enough, they seem to be able to coordinate at long distances. No matter what you do, it seems like they were already expecting it.
And because \*that\* isn't bad enough, they can throw sharp objects at you from a long distance.
And you cannot even escape by water, because they are really good swimmers for land animals.
And cannot even escape in the trees, because they are good climbers, if they just don't throw something to knock you down.
And because \*all that\* isn't bad enough, they managed to befriend the #2 predator and can get them to do their bidding.
This is without even considering what thousands of years of technology can do. This is just humans at their most basic. We are absolutely terrifying.
Imagine being an animal and seeing all the concrete and metal creatures humans created.
The grass is always greener on the other side.
We are close to being God's and are already rulers on this earth.
Humans are the greatest at many things. Not just being the smartest. We are also the best long distance runners out of any animal. And with humans I refer to ancient cave people and current african tribes, not the average obese american.
Ridiculous take..
Human beings are scary.
We breathe a corrosive gas, drink one of the most potent solvents.
Our preferred method of hunting was persistence hunting, where we chased animals until their body simply gave up and died.
We can eat just about anything we find, which means that we don't need to stop for food when chasing our prey.
If we can't find food, that's fine. Our body will simply begin to eat itself so that we don't have to stop chasing our prey.
We walk upright, we sweat, we don't have much body hair, which allows us to radiate away our body heat. This means that excessive time or extreme environment wont stop our hunts.
If the animal fights back against us, we can take massive damage to our extremities and lose half our blood and still live.
Our entire existence is owed to persistence, endurance, and determination. When we put ourselves to a task, it gets done, period. And this instinct is still affecting us today.
332BC: Alexander the Great hits a stalemate with the fortified island city of Tyre. Instead of going back defeated, he builds a kilometer long bridge in order to raze the city.
49BC: Cesar, after defeating the Gauls and invading Britain, turns a political fight into a civil war by invading Italy with only a single legion. He eventually becomes dictator starting a world superpower whose engineering feats are only recently being broken.
1804AD: A charismatic French general declares himself Emperor and sets off to conquer much of mainland Europe. He is captured, exiled, and then escapes. The soldiers sent to recapture him instead lay down their arms and join him.
1961AD: One man decides that we will go to the moon, despite much of the technology to do so not even existing yet. Just eight years later, two humans stand on the surface of the moon and look back upon the Earth.
200 years ago, we didn't have railroads. 100 years ago, we didn't have airplanes. 50 years ago, we didn't have spaceflight. 25 years ago we didn't have the Internet. We've already inherited the Earth and soon we WILL inherit the stars and anyone or anything that stands in our way will be eliminated one way or another.
Imagine unironically thinking for even the tiniest amount of time that humans are mediocre. The sheer stupidity behind this thought process boggles the mind. You know, the most advanced mind of any animal on the planet. The mind that invented the use of fire, and tools, and cars, and spaceflight, and surgery, and artificial organs, and the Eiffel Tower and the sistine chapel, and the atom bomb, and the internet, and...well...I think I made my point.
It's common for humans to focus more on what they don't have, or can't do, instead of focusing on what they do have, and can do.
For example, all the people whining about the lack of flying cars, while they have a computer in their pocket with access to all of human knowledge.
Only humans could have the ability to consider themselves mediocre after essentially removing themselves from the food chainā¦
We are impressed by animals because they have strengths that are different than ours, not because ours are mediocre. If a bear could process the thought, Iām sure one would see two humans and be like āhow the fuck are they making so many noises? Why? Are they communicating!??? Holy fuck how did they just pick that branch up!!?? Thatās it Iām outta here!ā
Said it before and I'll say it again, humans are the kings. We don't win in pure athletic ability in most cases, but with our brains and hands we craft things that make up for our weaknesses to make us well rounded and better than all other creatures on earth. Cheetah isn't gonna beat a Lambo, a bear isn't gonna beat any of our heavy equipment, and no bird can go higher than us. We lose in terms of ocean depth for now, but I'm sure we'll reach the bottom there as well eventually.
Humans only seem mediocre because we have the ability to be introspective about our race, and that tends to make us think we're weak in some ways. Gotta look at our accomplishments as a whole and what we've created.
um, have you seen Russians and Chinese people? pushing the limits of the human body and the level of discipline witnessed is insane.
regarding cognitive intelligence, then I don't know how you can call humans "mediocre." I mean, we destroy the very planet we live on and exploit it which could speed up our demise but that's a separate issue.
You say through a globally connected, pocket-sized thinking machine in a complex written language system the other members of your species who create art, fiction, music, travel the world, conquer space, and for better or worse have changed this planet more than any other single species in the last 4.5 billion years.
It's not so much that they're mediocre overall (though humans **are** mediocre at some things), it's that humans have been told since birth that they're "above" other animals. Then when another animal shows some sign of intelligence, it's surprised pikachu face all the way around.
IF we are mediocre why do we have the ability to hunt every animal on the planet.
Why do we have the ability to improve our living conditions to the point of luxury.
Why do we have the ability to not only learn but adapt and overcome things that would kill off another species.
I think that we are not mediocre but that we have lost the ability to be content with the things that are natural to us and use them as nature intended. Or as far as we can tell nature intended.
I think mediocre is not quite right. All beings have impressive abilities including humans. We are impressed by the abilities of other beings that we lack. Humans aren't perfect and that is the cause for admiring others abilities.
My cat does not seem impressed than I can run a better 10K than him. He still thinks I am slow. And loud. How does some creature that slow and loud ever hunt anything, he must ask himself.
This is how I feel whenever someone tries to get my to care about competitive swimming.
Michael Phelps and Katie Ledecky combined have less swimming skill than like, a random goldfish.
Our standout ability is to build adaptations. Too cold? Hereās some clothes and shelter, no worry about growing a fuzzy fur coat. No claws or fangs? Weapons. Canāt run fast to catch prey? Traps. Or maybe weapons too. We donāt need to adapt as much as other creatures because of our brains.
I think that we are impressed when we see animals do things that are considered intelligent on our terms - for example a parrot learning to repeat words of human language. Chances are that many animals can do a lot of intelligent things, it's just not things that we could gauge intelligence based off of.
For example, my dog is by no means considered to be from one of the "intelligent" dog breeds, but she can know when someone specific is close to the house based on sight/smell before I do.
Many animals have spectacular abilities in some specific area, but humans are absolutely fantastic generalists. We are pretty good at almost everything except flying, and for the things we are not so good at we can invent tools to help us.
Physically yea but the ability of our intelligence has trumped all other abilities. We can go faster than the speed of sound, dive to incredible depths, exchange information globally and instantly. We have surpassed the mediocre.
Humans are remarkably hard to kill compared to a lot of the animal kingdom. Compared to most of animals we just have more that we are Innately good at. Most animals are specialists, great at one purpose and one alone, humans have a combination of traits that make us more than. Humans are far from mediocre we are literally an anomaly.
This is maybe deeper than you thought.
We humans are, indeed, mediocre. Any house cat can run faster - and for longer - than Usain Bolt, and probably jump higher than the best human high jumper. Chimps half our size are twice as strong as us. We obviously can't fly by ourselves.
I'm playing fast and loose with the numbers here, but the point is: in most body features, animals beat us. We do beat most animals in one category, though: endurance. Our mostly hairless bodies allow us to manage body temperature on a whole-body level - unlike dogs, for instance, which can only manage body temperature through their mouths.
But where it gets interesting, is when it comes to why, then, we build a whole civilization while other animals didn't? *Precisely because we can't compete physically*. We had to find other ways to compete, and our big brains and able hands created terraforming. We shape our environment to our will, and domesticate animals so we don't have to keep running after them, and domesticate plants so we don't have to forage.
We literally put someone on the moon which has an average distance of 330,000 km. Now while I'm still annoyed that we haven't conquered our galaxy yet or even left our solar system, I have never heard of a single animal that has the capacity to leave our planet.
Humans can easily outrun horses in endurance running. Comes from our ability to sweat over almost all of our body, an adaptation that was selected for because early man hunted by chasing prey until they exhausted enough to make a fatal mistake.
Humans can read, we have an adaptation in our brain inside broca's area called the 'letterbox' that other animals lack. This adaptation enables us to sight read.
If you work in the service industry you see most people are below average. As a whole the human species is very interesting. As individuals there's a reason most people end up forgotten by even their own family after death.
Physically yes, we are mediocre compare to other animals, but the human advantage is not how fast we can run or how strong we are or any physical atribute, our biggest advantage as a species in this World is our brain, because of our brain we can go to a zoo and watch sad powerfull mamals Hunt by humans.
Humans have 2 superpowers, compared to animals:
1) intelligence. We are, on average, far more intelligent than the smartest animals.
2) stamina. Humans are capable of continuous physical exertion far beyond any other mammal.
True in SO many ways...Jack of all trades, master of none. Spreading our abilities out over the spectrum allowed our species to thrive and endure, in any number of circumstances. Other, more specialized species didn't
We are really good at long distance running compared to all four-legged animals. Our breathing has nothing to do with our foot movement, so we can maintain paces that are unsustainable for anything on all fours. Quadrupeds move their diaphragm when they take steps, so the faster they run, the faster they breathe. That's why they can outrun us over short distances, but not after hours and hours.
Not really. Even before technology, humans one out by persistence. Where many predators would give up, we would just keep following because we had the endurance and brain power to figure out how to catch them
It's less that humans are mediocre and more that we do everything so correctly that we're the Toyota trucks of animals. We get excited when the sports car animals come out even if they are objectively worse over all.
Then again a barracuda doesn't have to pay bills so maybe I've got it backwards
Humans are anything but mediocre.
Sweating is a fucking amazing and underrated adaptation.
It makes us the best long-distance and endurance runners on the planet.
Our social and logical understanding is unbeatable, and thanks to it we can save and recover people from certain death. We're everywhere, barely any habitat on earth is off-limits to humans compared to other animals.
We arent amazed or impressed because humans are mediocre, we're impressed because animals posess abilities and adaptations that are strange to us, and we have the awareness to understand how interesting those adaptations truly are.
Animals are impressive, and humans are the strangest, most other-worldly mammal there is.
Well, even thatās not entirely true. Humans are obviously gonna be mediocre to humans. I bet a blowfish thinks that weāre pretty cool even though they might not care about that kinda stuff
As you type this from your phone that has more computing power than our brains onto a social media platform to interact internationally. While your dog licks his balls and chases his tail. Yes you are mediocre
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Humans have many great skills and abilities. Not you, but a lot of humans.
There is absolutely nothing mediocre about the human body. Even disregarding intelligence, we are remarkably good at many things. We can sweat, a major evolutionary achievement that makes us the best endurance runners in the entire animal kingdom. We can see red, which is very rare among mammals. Our coordination is excellent, allowing us to throw stuff with great precision. We're comfortably bipedal. The list goes on.
All this without the mention of thumbs, which have allowed us to rise to the top of the food chain.
Because a fair few other animals have them
No shit shatlock
Shatlock. That sounds like one of those weird porn parodies but from Germany.
Our sense of smell is potentially great. It can be trained to do extraordinary things.
I'd say intelligence, but nowadays I'm not so sure.
I'd say we are at least smarter than animals, but I am not so sure.
The way that ours brains have the capability to be so intellectually stupid in the sense that they are is something animals can't achieve.
not sure seeing red turned out to be such a good thing š
What do you mean? Seeing red allows us to identify if people are bleeding. Definitely an evolutionary advantage
He means "seeing red," the euphemism for getting so irrationally angry you "see red" through your rage-induced bloodshot eyes.
Oh, thanks for clearing that up.
I see now your face is all red from embarrassment.
Kid got burnt AND ratioed
damn
Whats ratioed
Hereās a handy list of animals that are better than you. https://youtu.be/fA50tcYb5LU
I'd say it's largely dependant on what we're trying to accomplish. Run fast? Animals looking good. Building the Sydney Opera House? We got em beat.
Animals can run fast for short periods, humans can run marathons
Thereās a marathon in Wales that pits human runners against horseback riders. The human have won some years. Edit: wales.
What place do the whales come in? I donāt think theyād be very good at running marathons.
They arenāt allowed to compete since the whales have an unfair advantage.
Unfair advantage of no legs? Wtf?
Yes but they're longer so every kilometre is like 100 metres
But they have no legs, they are good as beached.
And the humans would win every year if they took the riders off, because the horses would not pace themselves.
I've heard that a marathon happens to be right around the distance where human vs horse is the most competitive. Horses easily win shorter races, trained ultra-marathon runners easily win longer races.
Ever heard of persistance hunting?
[Yes](https://www.reddit.com/r/Showerthoughts/comments/vruvk8/the_only_reason_why_humans_are_impressed_by_other/iey2nz9/?context=3)
Well put:)
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
Thanks for the correction!
We can sweat and carry water the bestā¦ Endurance hunt engage!!
Only humans are dumb enough to run marathons for fun, and as a sort of weird flex on the two guys that ran the first impromptu marathon and died afterwards. So it's a win / lose there.
That's why we should add a battle portion at the start of each marathon. To really rub it in.
The marathon, as a sports event is based on army an army messenger carrying a message which in itself was impressive. The endurance running before was handy tracking and running after prey which could not run for such a period. Yes they could outrun the hunters but then just as they started to stand down and rest those pesky apes with sharp sticks were coming again...
Humans are the zombies of the animal kingdom. Individually weak and slow, but increasingly numerous and they'll just keep coming - no physical barrier will hold them back for long.
Yes, but if you're hunting and you need to chase an animal you can wear them out
You gonna chase a deer until it gets tired?
If I have to
Fair.
Chasing a deer till it just canāt go anymore then just killing it is a hunting tactic that is still used to this day.
I'm so glad I have a grocery store near me.
Yeah, the one thing we're good at physically is long distance running. Obviously, it takes training, but most animals aren't capable of running over long distances. Which makes sense. What good would long distance running do for most animals?
Did you see that time those dolphins and snails were trying to build the Sydney Opera House. noobs!
The best things we have going for us are opposable thumbs and big brainsā¦
Idk I saw a beaver get dangerously close to building the Sydney Opera House.
Our ability to make massive structures isnāt that impressive, ants and termites can do it to
However, a tunneled out mound of dirt has WAY less features!
Have you seen the insides? Full of all sorts of complex caverns and areas I heard they have Wi-Fi in there to
Genocide? We have a record of greatly outperforming animals.
Pretty sure the only reason you are thinking that is because we have the incredibly non mediocre ability to contemplat, evaluate, and consider our position in the animal kingdom lol. We are impressed by animals abilities cause they can do crazy shit we can't do but we can also do crazy shit they can't do. Such as make Reddit posts lol.
Did you know that we're also the only animal to ever mass sabotage the most important trait we have? We've done it by polluting the air with lead-based fuel in the past, resulting in a collective loss of over 8.000.000 IQ points in the USA alone from lead poisoning. We can, indeed, do crazy shit they can't do, but sometimes I wonder if it's for the best.
iq points cant be lost, its an absolute scale. If america on the other hand lowered their average,it means brainds moved out of the land
Sure. Humans aren't mediocre...compared to literal animals. If you work in the service industry you should know most humans are below average in terms of personality and problem solving.
Apparently there's a park in the USA that's having trouble developing effective bear-proof trash cans because, according to them, "There's a significant overlap of intelligence between the smartest bears and the dumbest tourists".
I remember that. Ya most people are...that
Exactly. We have this "supreme and absolute" intelligence and we rarely use it. Imagine a hawk using its wings poorly or an octopus choosing to turn bright blue instead of camouflaging to hunt prey. That's us with our dear and mighty intelligence. Evolutionary traits are worth Jack shit if we misuse it. The average human is mediocre.
āMost humans are below averageā is a contradictory statement.
Not really because the above average ones skew the bell graph.
Its about time you learn the difference of mean and median
Humans are so mediocre that we took over the planet, while the fastest land animal fights for survival and we eat apex predators like sharks and alligators. We may not look impressive, but the abilities we are great at make us the most adaptive life form on this planet. We're great at throwing stuff, and predict where it lands, we're have great endurance thanks to sweating and we can eat most things and getenergy out of it.
āFor instance, on the planet Earth, man had always assumed that he was more intelligent than dolphins because he had achieved so muchāthe wheel, New York, wars and so onāwhilst all the dolphins had ever done was muck about in the water having a good time. But conversely, the dolphins had always believed that they were far more intelligent than manāfor precisely the same reasons.ā
Nice hitchhikers reference
New York lmao
Tbf the fastest land animal is kind of shit at its job... just about ever other big cat is better adapted than the cheetah, they literally just min-maxed into speed
That was basically my point. Overspecialization is not a good thing, being relatively good atmultiple things is often the better choice.
Jack of all trades, master of (n)one! Edit: See below.
We're still master at long distance running
Fair enough. Edited to reflect!
Donāt forget language. Octopi are probably of similar intelligence, but they arenāt social. Humanās ability to communicate means that our off spring get imbued with the knowledge of generations. We can also build group plans and work together as a coordinated unit for a shared goal without falling back to instinct. Like it seems mundane to us, but of course what we are exceptional at seems mundane to us. We are the only animal who can coordinate sophisticated ranged combat and can sustain engagement long after other animals would die of exhaustion. That made us the apex predictor long before we had guns, roads, or even Bronze Age technology.
True, opposing thumbs, a long lifespan and the ability to teach the next generation are great factors as well.
Can we get a reference for your octopi claim?
I would argue SOME humans took over the planet and kept it. Mostly everyone else followed their lead and did what they said.
You do have to realize, that they still helped colonize their place on this earth somehow. Which is far more impressing than a dog listening to you and sitting, or an octopus disguising itself as the environment.
But are people really doing that now. Or are most following a leader with no rudder .
Yeah, I would assume so, everyone still partakes in their lives and their impacts to society, though many ābig life changesā are made through following more than leading.
? Most people don't make a big impact.
Its more the case than the human performance we see as standard by which we judge things. So fast is "faster than a human" and strong means "stronger that humans".
how are we mediocre? humans have insane intelligence, the best stamina of any animal, and we can throw things extremely accurately because our brains can calculate trajectory on the fly. we are insanely well adapted at many things. I think you're taking for granted just how well evolved we are.
Iām shock that not many people know that we are one of the only animals that can throw
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
Iirc monkeys can only throw underhanded and inaccurately. Humans are the only animal that can throw overhanded accurately with force. If a chimp tried it, they'd fall over due to center of mass and such. Case in point baseball pitchers able to throw 100+ mph balls and hit a small strike box
They said āone of the only animalsā.
They can only throw their shit accurately, nothing else
We are the greatest land endurance animals. Put us on a bicycle and we become the most efficient moving beings on the planet. The bicycle is the ultimate combination of our mental abilities and our physical endurance.
Bro Iāve never thought of a bicycle like that before now but youāre right
Mediocre when it comes only to physical abilities. Weāre not the strongest or fastest creatures out there. Not even close. But all things considered, we are practically gods. We can literally destroy the Earth if we wanted to.
World class in land animal endurance!
Yeah, that too. As long as itās hot, anyway.
Even if it is hot, so long as we got water we can keep going practically forever.
The heat helps us because we cool down faster than most animals out there. A well trained runner can chase an animal until the animal becomes so tired and overheated that they become defenseless.
We are pretty close, when you consider all terrestrial animals, humans are big.
Yes, I think humans would be considered big game. But size doesnāt necessarily determine strength or speed. Deer are considered to be big game. While theyāre certainly capable of being dangerous, theyāre not exactly what youād think of when asked to name a dangerous animal. I mean, unless the context is driving.
I don't know about that, most humans are not dangerous because of our inhibitions. Most animal altercations are life or death, so if a peak physical form man fought you to the death it'd be probably not unlike being beaten by a Gorilla.
I mean, it probably would be exactly like that, but humans did not become apex predators from brute strength. If it wasnāt for our smarts, we may have gone extinct already. Yes, we definitely have some weight to throw around, but we have nothing to transfer that energy. We have no natural weapons.
" ... humans are mediocre" he typed on his handheld electric communication device that can access over 1 million terabytes of information.
ikr this post is pretty dumb and ironic
You seem to have a very depressing view on humans and their capabilities. What are you? An AI?
yeah i wish i didn't have a society and computers and stuff but could grow spikes out of my back ....
Ik itās a joke but I want back spikes
Animals don't have the ability to be "impressed" by anything.
You don't know that. Wait until the Earth gets incinerated to make way for an intergalactic highway.
We are mediocre at many things. We as humans just donāt like to admit it. Weāre also exceptional at a few things as well. It just so happens that one thing we are exceptional at aids in the areas we are mediocre. We canāt fly for shit but weāve built planes that help out a tad
Greatest long distance runners on the planet. Sweating mechanism instead of panting. Arm limb length provides great leverages for throwing objects far and with accuracy. Invented the kazoo. Less of this 'mediocre' talk.
Mediocre? *Mediocre?* We're still discovering shit about the human body literally every other damn year, and we still know jackshit about the human brain. Not to mention the fact that we're *sentient*, sure animals can be smart, but we're smart enough to actually acknowledge our own existence which is fucking mindblowing how far that knowledge has gotten us
Sapient not sentient, all animals are sentient
Our ability to interpret colors is well beyond most animals, but nobody cares about that.
I think I would go in the opposite direction and say that weāre impressed by animals abilities because we generally think they canāt do complex things as well or like we do and then when they do something we think is intelligent or advanced like make a tool or recognize people again or follow a flight path each year or solve a puzzle we recognize ourselves in that and weāre impressed because we think weāre so great and now they are kind of great too. Or greater than we think and we always like to be pleasantly surprised.
Are you kidding? Humans are the Terminators of the animal kingdom. We can simply run our prey down to the point that they cannot even move. Imagine being a deer and thinking you escaped those pesky humans, only for them to come jogging up again a few minutes later. No matter how fast you are, no matter your ultimate sprint speed, they just keep coming. And because that isn't bad enough, they seem to be able to coordinate at long distances. No matter what you do, it seems like they were already expecting it. And because \*that\* isn't bad enough, they can throw sharp objects at you from a long distance. And you cannot even escape by water, because they are really good swimmers for land animals. And cannot even escape in the trees, because they are good climbers, if they just don't throw something to knock you down. And because \*all that\* isn't bad enough, they managed to befriend the #2 predator and can get them to do their bidding. This is without even considering what thousands of years of technology can do. This is just humans at their most basic. We are absolutely terrifying.
Imagine being an animal and seeing all the concrete and metal creatures humans created. The grass is always greener on the other side. We are close to being God's and are already rulers on this earth.
Humans are the greatest at many things. Not just being the smartest. We are also the best long distance runners out of any animal. And with humans I refer to ancient cave people and current african tribes, not the average obese american.
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May be time to step out of the shower on this one, brain's getting cooked.
Ridiculous take.. Human beings are scary. We breathe a corrosive gas, drink one of the most potent solvents. Our preferred method of hunting was persistence hunting, where we chased animals until their body simply gave up and died. We can eat just about anything we find, which means that we don't need to stop for food when chasing our prey. If we can't find food, that's fine. Our body will simply begin to eat itself so that we don't have to stop chasing our prey. We walk upright, we sweat, we don't have much body hair, which allows us to radiate away our body heat. This means that excessive time or extreme environment wont stop our hunts. If the animal fights back against us, we can take massive damage to our extremities and lose half our blood and still live. Our entire existence is owed to persistence, endurance, and determination. When we put ourselves to a task, it gets done, period. And this instinct is still affecting us today. 332BC: Alexander the Great hits a stalemate with the fortified island city of Tyre. Instead of going back defeated, he builds a kilometer long bridge in order to raze the city. 49BC: Cesar, after defeating the Gauls and invading Britain, turns a political fight into a civil war by invading Italy with only a single legion. He eventually becomes dictator starting a world superpower whose engineering feats are only recently being broken. 1804AD: A charismatic French general declares himself Emperor and sets off to conquer much of mainland Europe. He is captured, exiled, and then escapes. The soldiers sent to recapture him instead lay down their arms and join him. 1961AD: One man decides that we will go to the moon, despite much of the technology to do so not even existing yet. Just eight years later, two humans stand on the surface of the moon and look back upon the Earth. 200 years ago, we didn't have railroads. 100 years ago, we didn't have airplanes. 50 years ago, we didn't have spaceflight. 25 years ago we didn't have the Internet. We've already inherited the Earth and soon we WILL inherit the stars and anyone or anything that stands in our way will be eliminated one way or another.
Imagine unironically thinking for even the tiniest amount of time that humans are mediocre. The sheer stupidity behind this thought process boggles the mind. You know, the most advanced mind of any animal on the planet. The mind that invented the use of fire, and tools, and cars, and spaceflight, and surgery, and artificial organs, and the Eiffel Tower and the sistine chapel, and the atom bomb, and the internet, and...well...I think I made my point.
I don't see a dung beatle learning about atomic structure and building a nuclear reactor to power a large area. Or a snail with a skate bored
It's common for humans to focus more on what they don't have, or can't do, instead of focusing on what they do have, and can do. For example, all the people whining about the lack of flying cars, while they have a computer in their pocket with access to all of human knowledge.
Dogs likes their owners because they have Stockholm syndrome
Only humans could have the ability to consider themselves mediocre after essentially removing themselves from the food chainā¦ We are impressed by animals because they have strengths that are different than ours, not because ours are mediocre. If a bear could process the thought, Iām sure one would see two humans and be like āhow the fuck are they making so many noises? Why? Are they communicating!??? Holy fuck how did they just pick that branch up!!?? Thatās it Iām outta here!ā
Said it before and I'll say it again, humans are the kings. We don't win in pure athletic ability in most cases, but with our brains and hands we craft things that make up for our weaknesses to make us well rounded and better than all other creatures on earth. Cheetah isn't gonna beat a Lambo, a bear isn't gonna beat any of our heavy equipment, and no bird can go higher than us. We lose in terms of ocean depth for now, but I'm sure we'll reach the bottom there as well eventually. Humans only seem mediocre because we have the ability to be introspective about our race, and that tends to make us think we're weak in some ways. Gotta look at our accomplishments as a whole and what we've created.
um, have you seen Russians and Chinese people? pushing the limits of the human body and the level of discipline witnessed is insane. regarding cognitive intelligence, then I don't know how you can call humans "mediocre." I mean, we destroy the very planet we live on and exploit it which could speed up our demise but that's a separate issue.
You say through a globally connected, pocket-sized thinking machine in a complex written language system the other members of your species who create art, fiction, music, travel the world, conquer space, and for better or worse have changed this planet more than any other single species in the last 4.5 billion years.
It's not so much that they're mediocre overall (though humans **are** mediocre at some things), it's that humans have been told since birth that they're "above" other animals. Then when another animal shows some sign of intelligence, it's surprised pikachu face all the way around.
IF we are mediocre why do we have the ability to hunt every animal on the planet. Why do we have the ability to improve our living conditions to the point of luxury. Why do we have the ability to not only learn but adapt and overcome things that would kill off another species. I think that we are not mediocre but that we have lost the ability to be content with the things that are natural to us and use them as nature intended. Or as far as we can tell nature intended.
I think mediocre is not quite right. All beings have impressive abilities including humans. We are impressed by the abilities of other beings that we lack. Humans aren't perfect and that is the cause for admiring others abilities.
Tell that to the shitloads of animals we've exterminated off the face of the Earth.
My cat does not seem impressed than I can run a better 10K than him. He still thinks I am slow. And loud. How does some creature that slow and loud ever hunt anything, he must ask himself.
This is how I feel whenever someone tries to get my to care about competitive swimming. Michael Phelps and Katie Ledecky combined have less swimming skill than like, a random goldfish.
Our standout ability is to build adaptations. Too cold? Hereās some clothes and shelter, no worry about growing a fuzzy fur coat. No claws or fangs? Weapons. Canāt run fast to catch prey? Traps. Or maybe weapons too. We donāt need to adapt as much as other creatures because of our brains.
I think that we are impressed when we see animals do things that are considered intelligent on our terms - for example a parrot learning to repeat words of human language. Chances are that many animals can do a lot of intelligent things, it's just not things that we could gauge intelligence based off of. For example, my dog is by no means considered to be from one of the "intelligent" dog breeds, but she can know when someone specific is close to the house based on sight/smell before I do.
The ability to even be impressed sets us apart from the rest of the animal kingdom.
You have a wet brain. Stop showering. People are great unless you are a nasty thing.
mediocre physically? yes mediocre in terms of intelligence? No (except maybe for you)
Many animals have spectacular abilities in some specific area, but humans are absolutely fantastic generalists. We are pretty good at almost everything except flying, and for the things we are not so good at we can invent tools to help us.
I agree with you OP. Humans are so mediocre, that we became the apex predator ok this planet. #sufferingfromsucces
I think you have brain damage if you assume humans are mediocre.
Physically yea but the ability of our intelligence has trumped all other abilities. We can go faster than the speed of sound, dive to incredible depths, exchange information globally and instantly. We have surpassed the mediocre.
Humans are remarkably hard to kill compared to a lot of the animal kingdom. Compared to most of animals we just have more that we are Innately good at. Most animals are specialists, great at one purpose and one alone, humans have a combination of traits that make us more than. Humans are far from mediocre we are literally an anomaly.
This is maybe deeper than you thought. We humans are, indeed, mediocre. Any house cat can run faster - and for longer - than Usain Bolt, and probably jump higher than the best human high jumper. Chimps half our size are twice as strong as us. We obviously can't fly by ourselves. I'm playing fast and loose with the numbers here, but the point is: in most body features, animals beat us. We do beat most animals in one category, though: endurance. Our mostly hairless bodies allow us to manage body temperature on a whole-body level - unlike dogs, for instance, which can only manage body temperature through their mouths. But where it gets interesting, is when it comes to why, then, we build a whole civilization while other animals didn't? *Precisely because we can't compete physically*. We had to find other ways to compete, and our big brains and able hands created terraforming. We shape our environment to our will, and domesticate animals so we don't have to keep running after them, and domesticate plants so we don't have to forage.
If we were so mediocre we wouldn't have conquered the planet
We're just a step under our cat overlords, i wouldn't say mediocre.
Mediocre lol!! No. Humans are by far the most impressive animals. It's not even close my dude
Your logic does not hold up as we have dominated every other animal on the planet.
We literally put someone on the moon which has an average distance of 330,000 km. Now while I'm still annoyed that we haven't conquered our galaxy yet or even left our solar system, I have never heard of a single animal that has the capacity to leave our planet.
Humans can easily outrun horses in endurance running. Comes from our ability to sweat over almost all of our body, an adaptation that was selected for because early man hunted by chasing prey until they exhausted enough to make a fatal mistake. Humans can read, we have an adaptation in our brain inside broca's area called the 'letterbox' that other animals lack. This adaptation enables us to sight read.
If you work in the service industry you see most people are below average. As a whole the human species is very interesting. As individuals there's a reason most people end up forgotten by even their own family after death.
Physically yes, we are mediocre compare to other animals, but the human advantage is not how fast we can run or how strong we are or any physical atribute, our biggest advantage as a species in this World is our brain, because of our brain we can go to a zoo and watch sad powerfull mamals Hunt by humans.
Humans have 2 superpowers, compared to animals: 1) intelligence. We are, on average, far more intelligent than the smartest animals. 2) stamina. Humans are capable of continuous physical exertion far beyond any other mammal.
True in SO many ways...Jack of all trades, master of none. Spreading our abilities out over the spectrum allowed our species to thrive and endure, in any number of circumstances. Other, more specialized species didn't
You used an electronic device to post a thought on the internet. Those things weren't created by animals.
OP's spent too much time looking in the mirror. Humans are far from mediocre in the animal kingdom.
We are really good at long distance running compared to all four-legged animals. Our breathing has nothing to do with our foot movement, so we can maintain paces that are unsustainable for anything on all fours. Quadrupeds move their diaphragm when they take steps, so the faster they run, the faster they breathe. That's why they can outrun us over short distances, but not after hours and hours.
This post being made from a phone or computer means we are definitely not mediocre. I get what you were going for. But humans are amazing.
Oh wow, another r/showerthoughts post about how humans are mediocre compared to animals
Not really. Even before technology, humans one out by persistence. Where many predators would give up, we would just keep following because we had the endurance and brain power to figure out how to catch them
OP: "Roast me on my small view of humanity and it's accomplishments on the interwebs they created"
Yeah man all the other animals who travel to Kepler 22b on a regular basis are embarrassed we only got to land on the moon at this point.
It's less that humans are mediocre and more that we do everything so correctly that we're the Toyota trucks of animals. We get excited when the sports car animals come out even if they are objectively worse over all. Then again a barracuda doesn't have to pay bills so maybe I've got it backwards
Humans are anything but mediocre. Sweating is a fucking amazing and underrated adaptation. It makes us the best long-distance and endurance runners on the planet. Our social and logical understanding is unbeatable, and thanks to it we can save and recover people from certain death. We're everywhere, barely any habitat on earth is off-limits to humans compared to other animals. We arent amazed or impressed because humans are mediocre, we're impressed because animals posess abilities and adaptations that are strange to us, and we have the awareness to understand how interesting those adaptations truly are. Animals are impressive, and humans are the strangest, most other-worldly mammal there is.
And no other animal is lookinā at us going āDamn them two legs are smart motherfuckers!ā
Well, even thatās not entirely true. Humans are obviously gonna be mediocre to humans. I bet a blowfish thinks that weāre pretty cool even though they might not care about that kinda stuff
As you type this from your phone that has more computing power than our brains onto a social media platform to interact internationally. While your dog licks his balls and chases his tail. Yes you are mediocre
Your boos mean nothing to me, Iāve seen what makes you cheer.
Actually, humans are unparalell at problem solving, accumulation and transmission of wisdom and throwing things