Seemingly trivial things that intrigue you

First.Aspect

rick_chasey said:

Some people seem to think animals are in any way equivalent. They’re not.

And yet you claim to care about preserving the natural world. Why?

rick_chasey

First.Aspect said:

rick_chasey said:

Some people seem to think animals are in any way equivalent. They’re not.

And yet you claim to care about preserving the natural world. Why?

Biodiversity is important for sustainability.

The whole bio system in nature is not fully understood so we don’t know what impact making irreversible damage will do.

So for now best not to make any irreversible damage.

First.Aspect

rick_chasey said:

First.Aspect said:

rick_chasey said:

Some people seem to think animals are in any way equivalent. They’re not.

And yet you claim to care about preserving the natural world. Why?

Biodiversity is important for sustainability.

The whole bio system in nature is not fully understood so we don’t know what impact making irreversible damage will do.

So for now best not to make any irreversible damage.

Fair enough.

Munsford0

rick_chasey said:

First.Aspect said:

rick_chasey said:

Some people seem to think animals are in any way equivalent. They’re not.

And yet you claim to care about preserving the natural world. Why?

Biodiversity is important for sustainability.

The whole bio system in nature is not fully understood so we don’t know what impact making irreversible damage will do.

So for now best not to make any irreversible damage.

Too late, we already did

kingstongraham

surrey_commuter said:

rjsterry said:

rick_chasey said:

Eh? Are you insane? Poor to middling at everything else? Compared to what?

Like an animal could even conceive of the premise let alone discuss it.

Other animals. censored sapiens has an unusually narrow genetic diversity indicative of almost going extinct. Our closest relative did go extinct.

We can't run or jump or swim very well. We have no great physical strength. Our senses are pretty average. We get cold easily and need a lot of ccalories to function. It's a good job we can make tools and use them so well or we'd be screwed.

Consider also that a mouse can easily outwit our attempts to catch it.

man can run a marathon faster than any other animal (this may be a myth)

Man vs lion over a marathon course, my money's on the lion. Even though it might take him a few days.

Apparently an ostrich would beat any human in a fair race over the marathon distance. By an hour.

mrb123

kingstongraham said:

surrey_commuter said:

rjsterry said:

rick_chasey said:

Eh? Are you insane? Poor to middling at everything else? Compared to what?

Like an animal could even conceive of the premise let alone discuss it.

Other animals. censored sapiens has an unusually narrow genetic diversity indicative of almost going extinct. Our closest relative did go extinct.

We can't run or jump or swim very well. We have no great physical strength. Our senses are pretty average. We get cold easily and need a lot of ccalories to function. It's a good job we can make tools and use them so well or we'd be screwed.

Consider also that a mouse can easily outwit our attempts to catch it.

man can run a marathon faster than any other animal (this may be a myth)

Man vs lion over a marathon course, my money's on the lion. Even though it might take him a few days.

Apparently an ostrich would beat any human in a fair race over the marathon distance. By an hour.

Humans can run 100 miles or more in 24 hours. We can also do it in both hot and cold conditions.

masjer

He used to be the most powerful man on the planet.

This is orange too, but more impressive.

Pross

rick_chasey said:

Well when they can build a rival society, complete with associated technology, you can tell me I’m wrong ✌🏻

It's lucky we can do those things so well as humans otherwise large parts of the world might be struggling with finding food and water whilst other parts wasted huge amounts of natural resources or parts of the world might do things that create an impact on climate that threatens other parts of the planet's existance entirely. Thank God for human society and technology

kingstongraham

mrb123 said:

kingstongraham said:

surrey_commuter said:

rjsterry said:

rick_chasey said:

Eh? Are you insane? Poor to middling at everything else? Compared to what?

Like an animal could even conceive of the premise let alone discuss it.

Other animals. censored sapiens has an unusually narrow genetic diversity indicative of almost going extinct. Our closest relative did go extinct.

We can't run or jump or swim very well. We have no great physical strength. Our senses are pretty average. We get cold easily and need a lot of ccalories to function. It's a good job we can make tools and use them so well or we'd be screwed.

Consider also that a mouse can easily outwit our attempts to catch it.

man can run a marathon faster than any other animal (this may be a myth)

Man vs lion over a marathon course, my money's on the lion. Even though it might take him a few days.

Apparently an ostrich would beat any human in a fair race over the marathon distance. By an hour.

Humans can run 100 miles or more in 24 hours. We can also do it in both hot and cold conditions.

Speak for yourself.

pinno

'Superior' ?!

Wow.

Maybe on an individual basis but as a race we have gone beyond parasitic.
Intelligent parasites don't kill their host.

briantrumpet

kingstongraham said:

mrb123 said:

kingstongraham said:

surrey_commuter said:

rjsterry said:

rick_chasey said:

Eh? Are you insane? Poor to middling at everything else? Compared to what?

Like an animal could even conceive of the premise let alone discuss it.

Other animals. censored sapiens has an unusually narrow genetic diversity indicative of almost going extinct. Our closest relative did go extinct.

We can't run or jump or swim very well. We have no great physical strength. Our senses are pretty average. We get cold easily and need a lot of ccalories to function. It's a good job we can make tools and use them so well or we'd be screwed.

Consider also that a mouse can easily outwit our attempts to catch it.

man can run a marathon faster than any other animal (this may be a myth)

Man vs lion over a marathon course, my money's on the lion. Even though it might take him a few days.

Apparently an ostrich would beat any human in a fair race over the marathon distance. By an hour.

Humans can run 100 miles or more in 24 hours. We can also do it in both hot and cold conditions.

Speak for yourself.

One of the counter arguments against human intelligence is that some people still choose to run, despite the invention of the wheel & the bicycle.

pinno

briantrumpet said:

kingstongraham said:

mrb123 said:

kingstongraham said:

surrey_commuter said:

rjsterry said:

rick_chasey said:

Eh? Are you insane? Poor to middling at everything else? Compared to what?

Like an animal could even conceive of the premise let alone discuss it.

Other animals. censored sapiens has an unusually narrow genetic diversity indicative of almost going extinct. Our closest relative did go extinct.

We can't run or jump or swim very well. We have no great physical strength. Our senses are pretty average. We get cold easily and need a lot of ccalories to function. It's a good job we can make tools and use them so well or we'd be screwed.

Consider also that a mouse can easily outwit our attempts to catch it.

man can run a marathon faster than any other animal (this may be a myth)

Man vs lion over a marathon course, my money's on the lion. Even though it might take him a few days.

Apparently an ostrich would beat any human in a fair race over the marathon distance. By an hour.

Humans can run 100 miles or more in 24 hours. We can also do it in both hot and cold conditions.

Speak for yourself.

One of the counter arguments against human intelligence is that some people still choose to run, despite the invention of the wheel & the bicycle.

This is true.
However, some less intelligent individuals cycle.
Mind boggling.

Pross

briantrumpet said:

kingstongraham said:

mrb123 said:

kingstongraham said:

surrey_commuter said:

rjsterry said:

rick_chasey said:

Eh? Are you insane? Poor to middling at everything else? Compared to what?

Like an animal could even conceive of the premise let alone discuss it.

Other animals. censored sapiens has an unusually narrow genetic diversity indicative of almost going extinct. Our closest relative did go extinct.

We can't run or jump or swim very well. We have no great physical strength. Our senses are pretty average. We get cold easily and need a lot of ccalories to function. It's a good job we can make tools and use them so well or we'd be screwed.

Consider also that a mouse can easily outwit our attempts to catch it.

man can run a marathon faster than any other animal (this may be a myth)

Man vs lion over a marathon course, my money's on the lion. Even though it might take him a few days.

Apparently an ostrich would beat any human in a fair race over the marathon distance. By an hour.

Humans can run 100 miles or more in 24 hours. We can also do it in both hot and cold conditions.

Speak for yourself.

One of the counter arguments against human intelligence is that some people still choose to run, despite the invention of the wheel & the bicycle.

It's even worse than that, some of us (oops, I mean 'them' of course!) have a shed full of bikes gathering dust and still opt to run. Weirdos!

briantrumpet

Pross said:

briantrumpet said:

kingstongraham said:

mrb123 said:

kingstongraham said:

surrey_commuter said:

rjsterry said:

rick_chasey said:

Eh? Are you insane? Poor to middling at everything else? Compared to what?

Like an animal could even conceive of the premise let alone discuss it.

Other animals. censored sapiens has an unusually narrow genetic diversity indicative of almost going extinct. Our closest relative did go extinct.

We can't run or jump or swim very well. We have no great physical strength. Our senses are pretty average. We get cold easily and need a lot of ccalories to function. It's a good job we can make tools and use them so well or we'd be screwed.

Consider also that a mouse can easily outwit our attempts to catch it.

man can run a marathon faster than any other animal (this may be a myth)

Man vs lion over a marathon course, my money's on the lion. Even though it might take him a few days.

Apparently an ostrich would beat any human in a fair race over the marathon distance. By an hour.

Humans can run 100 miles or more in 24 hours. We can also do it in both hot and cold conditions.

Speak for yourself.

One of the counter arguments against human intelligence is that some people still choose to run, despite the invention of the wheel & the bicycle.

It's even worse than that, some of us (oops, I mean 'them' of course!) have a shed full of bikes gathering dust and still opt to run. Weirdos!

Any *they* do it knowing that'll it'll mess up their knees too. Idiots.

kingstongraham

I'm not sure if you could train an ostrich to ride a bike.

rjsterry

rick_chasey said:

First.Aspect said:

rick_chasey said:

Eh? Are you insane? Poor to middling at everything else? Compared to what?

Like an animal could even conceive of the premise let alone discuss it.

Physically. And we don't have particularly sharp senses. Or wits, if this thread is anything to go by.

We can fly higher than any bird, go faster than any animal. We go into space. We are more self aware, more intellectually capable than any animal by a long way.

We have the capability to pretty much exterminate any animal we want within reason and even if we couldn’t i would back humans to be able to if they wanted in pretty short order.

Our being is so much more advanced than any animal our lives and meanings have moved far beyond thoughts animals are even capable of.

The fact we can even experiment on animals to understand their own self awareness just underlines our superiority.

We really can't fly. We have made a thing that can fly, which is not same thing at all.

rjsterry

rick_chasey said:

First.Aspect said:

rick_chasey said:

Some people seem to think animals are in any way equivalent. They’re not.

And yet you claim to care about preserving the natural world. Why?

Biodiversity is important for sustainability.

The whole bio system in nature is not fully understood so we don’t know what impact making irreversible damage will do.

So for now best not to make any irreversible damage.

Sounds like you don't really understand it at all.

rick_chasey

And?

briantrumpet

rick_chasey said:

And?

I think that's a good way to end this particular strand of thought...

Pross

Rick, we're not even capable of getting a train service to run on time (or at all). Do you really think we're so superior? Animals learn to do what they need to survive, the vast majority of humans rely on others being able to do stuff for them so they can survive. In a world where the ability to fend for yourself was essential the likes of JRM would be among the first casualties so I'm not quite sure human civilisation is that superior.

surrey_commuter

Pross said:

Rick, we're not even capable of getting a train service to run on time (or at all). Do you really think we're so superior? Animals learn to do what they need to survive, the vast majority of humans rely on others being able to do stuff for them so they can survive. In a world where the ability to fend for yourself was essential the likes of JRM would be among the first casualties so I'm not quite sure human civilisation is that superior.

I think that is Rick's point that we have evolved past the stage of spending each day finding shelter and something to eat.

As Elon does not have to spend several hours a day catching his dinner he has time to build a rocket to go to Mars

TheBigBean

I saw a TV programme recently where someone was trying to snare a fox with bait. The wily fox was nearly caught but learnt from its mistake, so didn't repeat it. It thus demonstrated greater evolutionary skills than some posters on BR who cannot let the bait go.

Pross

surrey_commuter said:

Pross said:

Rick, we're not even capable of getting a train service to run on time (or at all). Do you really think we're so superior? Animals learn to do what they need to survive, the vast majority of humans rely on others being able to do stuff for them so they can survive. In a world where the ability to fend for yourself was essential the likes of JRM would be among the first casualties so I'm not quite sure human civilisation is that superior.

I think that is Rick's point that we have evolved past the stage of spending each day finding shelter and something to eat.

As Elon does not have to spend several hours a day catching his dinner he has time to build a rocket to go to Mars

Which is great until there is some apocalyptical event, which feels increasingly likely, that requires the use of those basic survival skills everyone has neglected to to the incredible human progress. You only have to look at how difficult some people found "lockdown".

rjsterry

surrey_commuter said:

Pross said:

Rick, we're not even capable of getting a train service to run on time (or at all). Do you really think we're so superior? Animals learn to do what they need to survive, the vast majority of humans rely on others being able to do stuff for them so they can survive. In a world where the ability to fend for yourself was essential the likes of JRM would be among the first casualties so I'm not quite sure human civilisation is that superior.

I think that is Rick's point that we have evolved past the stage of spending each day finding shelter and something to eat.

As Elon does not have to spend several hours a day catching his dinner he has time to build a rocket to go to Mars

That's not evolution, that is incrementally building on the achievements of others. Our brains are the same as they were in the Paleolithic. Our ability to do these hasn't really changed. It's one of the big mysteries why modern humans didn't invent very much for tens of thousands of years when change has come so quickly over the last couple of millenia.

monkimark

I spent a while trying to fashion a flint axe head (or indeed anything vaguely tool like) at the weekend on the request of my daughter.
Those cavemen were clever guys

pinno

monkimark said:

I spent a while trying to fashion a flint axe head (or indeed anything vaguely tool like) at the weekend on the request of my daughter.
Those cavemen were clever guys

I expect that it would take more than a weekend to become a proper caveman.

rjsterry

monkimark said:

I spent a while trying to fashion a flint axe head (or indeed anything vaguely tool like) at the weekend on the request of my daughter.
Those cavemen were clever guys

This. I've tried a few times and just end up with smaller bits of misshapen flint.

First.Aspect

Is anyone here capable of making fire (without a technological aid)?

pblakeney

First.Aspect said:

Is anyone here capable of making fire (without a technological aid)?

I tried.
I failed.

rick_chasey

First.Aspect said:

Is anyone here capable of making fire (without a technological aid)?

Which animals do this?