True enough. But given that we are going to drive ourselves to extinction in a geological blink of an eye, it really didn’t do us that great. Should have evolved into a crab.
I mean, you can’t really say that we’re going to drive ourselves to extinction, until we’ve been driven to extinction. Most things people list as likely to do this, climate change, nuclear war, are things that could conceivably do so, but honestly aren’t likely to. Destroy civilization maybe, but that just takes disrupting supply lines hard enough. Extinction means nobody, anywhere on the planet survives, even if it’s some little pocket of people in some corner of the world whose climate is good after warming is considered and which isn’t a target of any nuclear arsenals, because in a number of generations such a little pocket can grow to repopulate the planet again. It’s not an impossible thing for sure, but killing off a species capable of surviving in almost any climate zone found on the planet, with the ability to manipulate the growth of it’s own food supply, and adapt new tools actively in response to problems within a single generation, is a difficult task.
I think the invention of engineering is what finally broke evolution, but there are a lot of factors we have that bootstrapped us to that point. Walking upright on two legs is more efficient at the price of raw power. Many creatures can outrun a human but no land animal can come close to our jogging range. A Cheetah can go 60 miles an hour for a minute or so but a human can go 10 miles per hour for 6 hours straight. It also frees our forelimbs, already made flexible, versatile and dexterous by our distant tree swinging ancestors, for tool use. Funnily enough, another ability that is unparalleled in nature is our ability to throw things with accuracy and power. You also need pretty good hands to master fire, and thus cooking, and thus unlocking extra nutrients from the food you catch, which provides for that very hungry brain of ours. A few millennia later and we’ve pretty much got control of the biosphere itself.
Being able to engineer is by itself something that can even exist in genetic memory, instinctual.
I don’t think this is the case. There are creatures that instinctively construct, like ants and beavers, but their constructions are more an emergent behavior from simpler rules or systems. Their behaviors have evolved, the ants that dig slightly more efficient nests were more successful and went on to reproduce more offspring colonies.
At the root of engineering is the sentence “If I do this, then I bet I can get this to happen.” That behavior is unique to humans. It takes a lot of forebrain to do, and to develop that forebrain took a very successful omnivorous, multi-strategy primate.
Speed runs of the video game Super Mario World for the SNES are divided into a lot of categories, some allow glitches, some don’t. Glitchless runs are just about playing the game as intended as efficiently as you can. The absolute fastest run though, Any%, involves a trick where you perform a glitch that allows you to write arbitrary values into RAM, effectively reprogramming the game on the fly to trigger the end cut scene. This is called Arbitrary Code Injection. Now you’re playing a different game by a different, more abstract set of rules called 6502 assembly.
Upright bipedal gait with knees that lock, dexterous hands with opposable thumbs on highly articulated arms not significantly used for locomotion, binocular, tri-color vision granting great depth perception, the ability to sweat to stay cool for long periods of time under moderate exertion? All of that is just gettin’ gud, playing the game of evolution exceedingly well. Sometime between tying a knapped flint to a stick to make an axe and digging the first irrigation trench we arrived at that level of Arbitrary Code Injection. We’re not playing the same game as the other animals anymore.
I mean, every existent species is the result of millions of generations. We all fill our niches, until we don’t. So even the humble tortoise is just as remarkable as us in that way, but I bet they will outlast us given how long they’ve existed.
The thing that always stuck with me about evolution is that we are related to everything. The pup I’m sitting next to is pretty close to me in terms of evolutionary time, the potatoes I ate are a lot more distant, but it is still my cousin, etc. It really makes me feel like I’m part of the world knowing that.
I was with most of this until the selective breeding part. Did prehistoric humans have a concept of this? Do we have evidence of that? If so, that sounds rather interesting. I’m just a bit skeptical is all.
We’re not the only ones that can do that. Wolves, dingoes and other wild dogs, and hyenas are also persistence predators. All species of the Homo genus were persistence predators but we’re the only one still around.
E:Our level of hand eye coordination is unique to the Homo genus. We’re the only living animals that can use thrown weapons effectively. Chimpanzees are the next best throwers and at a range of 6.5ft they hit their target with about 11% of their throws.
In packs, but they are also hunting in cold climates where they can lose heat a little easier. However, many dogs do have pretty good endurance, but I doubt they could do a marathon.
I thought it was our ability to just run and run and run that broke evolution.
I think we have a lot going for us.
Except that hubris.
A lot going against us for sure.
Mostly us.
True enough. But given that we are going to drive ourselves to extinction in a geological blink of an eye, it really didn’t do us that great. Should have evolved into a crab.
I mean, you can’t really say that we’re going to drive ourselves to extinction, until we’ve been driven to extinction. Most things people list as likely to do this, climate change, nuclear war, are things that could conceivably do so, but honestly aren’t likely to. Destroy civilization maybe, but that just takes disrupting supply lines hard enough. Extinction means nobody, anywhere on the planet survives, even if it’s some little pocket of people in some corner of the world whose climate is good after warming is considered and which isn’t a target of any nuclear arsenals, because in a number of generations such a little pocket can grow to repopulate the planet again. It’s not an impossible thing for sure, but killing off a species capable of surviving in almost any climate zone found on the planet, with the ability to manipulate the growth of it’s own food supply, and adapt new tools actively in response to problems within a single generation, is a difficult task.
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Crab is the perfect form.
Stormlight Archive moment
Humana have been around for several million years. Clothing alone is what, 3.5 million years old?
At least 40,000 years, but more likely longer; the best estimate of when body lice diverged from head lice is ~107,000 years ago
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I think the invention of engineering is what finally broke evolution, but there are a lot of factors we have that bootstrapped us to that point. Walking upright on two legs is more efficient at the price of raw power. Many creatures can outrun a human but no land animal can come close to our jogging range. A Cheetah can go 60 miles an hour for a minute or so but a human can go 10 miles per hour for 6 hours straight. It also frees our forelimbs, already made flexible, versatile and dexterous by our distant tree swinging ancestors, for tool use. Funnily enough, another ability that is unparalleled in nature is our ability to throw things with accuracy and power. You also need pretty good hands to master fire, and thus cooking, and thus unlocking extra nutrients from the food you catch, which provides for that very hungry brain of ours. A few millennia later and we’ve pretty much got control of the biosphere itself.
Plus, great booties and boobies
Being hyper violent also helps
science. realizing our monkey brains needs external help to actually try to be rational.
Engineering predates what we now call science by millennia.
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I don’t think this is the case. There are creatures that instinctively construct, like ants and beavers, but their constructions are more an emergent behavior from simpler rules or systems. Their behaviors have evolved, the ants that dig slightly more efficient nests were more successful and went on to reproduce more offspring colonies.
At the root of engineering is the sentence “If I do this, then I bet I can get this to happen.” That behavior is unique to humans. It takes a lot of forebrain to do, and to develop that forebrain took a very successful omnivorous, multi-strategy primate.
Speed runs of the video game Super Mario World for the SNES are divided into a lot of categories, some allow glitches, some don’t. Glitchless runs are just about playing the game as intended as efficiently as you can. The absolute fastest run though, Any%, involves a trick where you perform a glitch that allows you to write arbitrary values into RAM, effectively reprogramming the game on the fly to trigger the end cut scene. This is called Arbitrary Code Injection. Now you’re playing a different game by a different, more abstract set of rules called 6502 assembly.
Upright bipedal gait with knees that lock, dexterous hands with opposable thumbs on highly articulated arms not significantly used for locomotion, binocular, tri-color vision granting great depth perception, the ability to sweat to stay cool for long periods of time under moderate exertion? All of that is just gettin’ gud, playing the game of evolution exceedingly well. Sometime between tying a knapped flint to a stick to make an axe and digging the first irrigation trench we arrived at that level of Arbitrary Code Injection. We’re not playing the same game as the other animals anymore.
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It’s definitely these two things plus our ability to digest meat as well as plant matter, plus our communication and social skills plus…
Tools and making tools. We fucking tricked stones into thinking
yes. cooked meat in fire in particular
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I mean, every existent species is the result of millions of generations. We all fill our niches, until we don’t. So even the humble tortoise is just as remarkable as us in that way, but I bet they will outlast us given how long they’ve existed.
The thing that always stuck with me about evolution is that we are related to everything. The pup I’m sitting next to is pretty close to me in terms of evolutionary time, the potatoes I ate are a lot more distant, but it is still my cousin, etc. It really makes me feel like I’m part of the world knowing that.
Language is OP in this MMORPG
I was with most of this until the selective breeding part. Did prehistoric humans have a concept of this? Do we have evidence of that? If so, that sounds rather interesting. I’m just a bit skeptical is all.
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It was actually cooking. We learned to grind up meat instead of chewing it, small teeth was the first step.
Losing our hairy bodies and using our signature ability “Sweat” really did a number on all those that are faster than us in a sprint.
We’re not the only ones that can do that. Wolves, dingoes and other wild dogs, and hyenas are also persistence predators. All species of the Homo genus were persistence predators but we’re the only one still around.
E:Our level of hand eye coordination is unique to the Homo genus. We’re the only living animals that can use thrown weapons effectively. Chimpanzees are the next best throwers and at a range of 6.5ft they hit their target with about 11% of their throws.
I read that as " wolves, dragons" and was very confused for a moment.
Uh no, evolution isn’t broken. And humans still evolve too, like getting still more gracile, some children not having wisdom teeth anymore and so on.
Aren’t some wolves also persistent hunters?
In packs, but they are also hunting in cold climates where they can lose heat a little easier. However, many dogs do have pretty good endurance, but I doubt they could do a marathon.
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