Humans, the Superior Beings

[jsbn]

In term of intelligent, human beings do not have to think that they are superior, because they ARE superior.... this is a fact ...:think:

How superior IS superior?

Its a fact that ants have the natural ability to carry things 10 to 100 times their own body weight, whilst this ability is gained thru training in humans.

Animals have an acute and heightened 5 senses and may carry other unique senses BEYOND the 5 regular senses which human beings do not possess.

Living beings, with fragile flesh which can be torn and shredded into pieces by strongly constructed human metal known as 'steel' are found living in the Mariana Trench in the Pacific whilst we have to depend on specially constructed vehicles to bring us to dat depth and even so, for a limited time due to the structural integrity of the diving vehicle.

So, does these facts make us anymore superior than supposedly 'less superior' animals?

 

[Zplus]

Consider the word "superior" might be an invention of the human mind as a way of categorizing our world.... or for subjugating its own subjects.

To a worker ant, she probably do not care... or find a need to care about who is superior... they live to serve only the queen...

 

[jOhO]

of course, if you want to compare how much times weight we can carry, then sure we are inferior.

it depends on what you're comparing, what is the standard, or the "control" in scientific terms.

anyway, i dun see a point in spending time thinking about this because life goes on just the same for me whether i know that i'm a superior being or not.

i can't help but think that this thread is slightly attributed to the recent discussions over cats being killed, lawfully or otherwise.

my personal view, those who love cats/animals all that much can do what they need to. but they do not need to condemn the human race just because not everyone thinks like them.

take me for example: i will not kick a stray cat (and i see many everyday below my block) nor will i go to the town council and see my MP becos cats are to be killed. what does that make me? superior or inferior?

and as a matter of fact, i have a neighbour, few doors down, whose cat comes into my house when i am not at home. sometimes my wooden door isnt' closed properly becos there's a problem in the lock, i need to slam it for it to shut. if not the cat can just gently push it and he comes in. when i return home he runs out and scares the crap out of me.

i have not called HDB... YET. i did however, ask the owner whether he knew of such occurances with his cat entering pple's houses, and his ans was "just close the door lar!".

so now i have to close my door and have a stuffy house becos of a cat. i am inferior indeed.

anyway, i am not at all bothered enuff to call HDB. it's not becos i love/hate animals, i just have other things to think about. just becos some of us dun think about animals in an affectionate/humave way doesn't automatically make us "cruel" or "heartless". while there are plenty of animal lovers out there, i assure u, there are just as many, or MORE, "indifferent towards animals" type of pple, like myself.

sure i'd go and play with my friend's labrador when i visit, cute fella, very affectionate. i dun mind them really! as for the cats downstairs, mostly they dun come close to me and i'm rushing up to my flat to take a piss anyway, so no "affection" there.... :bsmilie:

as for the moral values of killing a cat, let's just say i won't support the idea, nor will i riot against it. that kind of perhaps "sitting on fence attitude" may not speak much of my character to some of u, but it CERTAINLY does not make me in the WRONG side of things. remember that. i am just a little irked that it SEEMS (to me, maybe i'm too sensitive) that pple who do not fight for the rights of cats lives are all vermin humans. i might exerggerate but i'd like to remind animal lovers that while ur love for them is commendable, u dun have to offend non-animal lovers in the process, often not realising so.

this post is not directed at anyone in particular, just speaking my mind.

 

[Canonised]

How superior IS superior?

Simple question, you need simple answer....... but if you start going into infinite details and all other type of comparision (with other UNKNOWN ET or Gods) .... then there is never a final answer. Even after a hundred years we may still be debating.... :cry:
However you look at it, HUMAN is still the superior one .... no doubt at all. (Superiority doesnt mean the strongest, the smartest, the fastest, etc.... but the ability to maximise the potential of our brain power to solve problems to serve to our advantage. ..)

 

[Hommie]

We are street smart intelligent but lacks the universal wisdom.

 

[eclectyx]

Superiority or inferiority is a value judgement. Eye of the beholder yada yada yada.

To get back to the TS's (jsbn) original question/post, some of the commonly described characteristics that differentiate us from other organisms are cognition, language, ability to use tools, etc. Under cognition and language skills, perhaps the ability for symbolic thinking/communication, ability for abstract thinking, and quite importantly, the ability to communicate, learn and share information, or what is known as "culture". These ideas of what makes us unique as humans have been around for a long time.

Yet, one by one, these "uniquely human" abilities have been challenged in light of new discoveries. Primates (chimps, gorillas, orangutans) have language and cognitive abilities. Primates (long known) and dolphins (recently discovered) can use tools and demonstrate "culture" by teaching other members of their species the techniques to do so! In a recent paper, it was reported that elephants were observed to "grieve" for a dead matriarch, including members from other herds.

That we have long chosen to ignore or deny these traits in animals, and that we similarly prefer to dismiss our own animal behaviours*, is just plain snobbery. :devil:

*The human brain is just a supersized cerebrum literally sitting on top of what is otherwise essentially the same "primitive brain" found in other "lower" mammals and reptiles! The cerebrum gives us intelligence, congnition memory, language, but it has to "negotiate with" (I don't really believe it "directs") the rest of the "primitive brain" which controls all our drives (hunger, thirst, sex, etc), moods, bodily functions, reflex actions, etc.

Cockroaches will inherit the Earth.

 

[afbug]

Its the environment. Humans are masters of our domain and we can change the environment to suit us. If humans are in the jungle, we're not longer the master. There are many other animanls higher up in the food chain and can kill us easily. Animals have to adapt to the environment to survive, they cannot change it. Humans can adapt OR change the environment, that is the difference.

In space/underwater, we're not the master and have to adapt to the environment if we want to go there. If earth, one day is to be too hostile to survive in for humans, we're alreadying looking to other planets and space for a suitable 'home'. Whether we can make it out of earth or not is another matter.

 

[satay16]

nah. i think humans are superior, cos we actually think about whether we are superior or not.

 

[jsbn]

Thnx for all the input. But anyway to clarify a point as well as to assure everyone, this wasn't directed in specifically to the recent cat culling incident neither is this thread a specific attack or pun meant to be.

I have been on this question for a long time. After reading and watching animal-themed shows and books, after thinking abt humans as a whole. On my holiday trips, I stand/sit at the busy train station waiting for the next train, seeing ppl go by their lives, sometimes oblivious to one another.....

Things like these sometimes will set ur mind in motion at times.

Its pretty hard to put it down in words. Perhaps one day, u guys might wanna give this a go when u're on ur holiday alone.

 

[satay16]

Thnx for all the input. But anyway to clarify a point as well as to assure everyone, this wasn't directed in specifically to the recent cat culling incident neither is this thread a specific attack or pun meant to be.

I have been on this question for a long time. After reading and watching animal-themed shows and books, after thinking abt humans as a whole. On my holiday trips, I stand/sit at the busy train station waiting for the next train, seeing ppl go by their lives, sometimes oblivious to one another.....

Things like these sometimes will set ur mind in motion at times.

Its pretty hard to put it down in words. Perhaps one day, u guys might wanna give this a go when u're on ur holiday alone.

hee hee, we have a phliosopher here.
me still thinks human are superior. we are just too scary that we even scare ourselves sometimes.

 

[Canonised]

On my holiday trips, I stand/sit at the busy train station waiting for the next train, seeing ppl go by their lives, sometimes oblivious to one another.....
.

If there is a God, then we must thank him for giving us a brain that is far more superior than any other living things, because physically we are actually underdeveloped and one of the most inferior among creatures. Just imagine that if another creature, such as the simple ants, has our brain power, then we would by now already perished.

 

[xray]

But in other cases, a few bacteria or viruses probably can ruin the whole brain easily.

Aren't these organisms superior then? ;p

 

[pai]

The dolphins are probably saying, "Look at these humans.... working all day in little cubicles and chasing little pieces of paper. Can they truly be free to do what they wanna do? They have all painted themselves into a corner."

dolphin's only No.2 smartest animal in the world lor. still got white mice leh...

don't panic :devil:

 

[jsbn]

If there is a God, then we must thank him for giving us a brain that is far more superior than any other living things, because physically we are actually underdeveloped and one of the most inferior among creatures. Just imagine that if another creature, such as the simple ants, has our brain power, then we would by now already perished.

Ever occurred to u that there might be even more superior beings in the animal kingdom not yet known to (or denied as 'impossible') humans?

After all, even with the advent of technology, MRI scans and stuff like that, even after mapping the Human Genome sequence, study of the human brain, its workings and abilities are all still underway.

 

[Sion]

hee hee, we have a phliosopher here.
me still thinks human are superior. we are just too scary that we even scare ourselves sometimes.

Can I ask everybody here which species on earth has the intelligence to come up with such a delicacy like Satay?

Most other species don't have the intelligence to make charcoal stoves like human does.

 

[Sion]

Ever occurred to u that there might be even more superior beings in the animal kingdom not yet known to (or denied as 'impossible') humans?

Superman?

 

[Patryk]

if you wish to form no distinctions btween humans and nature, we are hence essentially part of nature. and if nature had designed us to be, in our human perception 'superior' to other species, then we are what we are.

we were designed by nature to be what we are now. this debate about why we consider ourselves 'superior' and what not compared to other species is fruitless as it will continue to be an argument between humans which makes its cause redundant.

 

[eclectyx]

dolphin's only No.2 smartest animal in the world lor. still got white mice leh...

don't panic :devil:

Ohhh, now I just feel depressed.... leave me alone. Nobody cares about me anyway.... :devil:

Ever occurred to u that there might be even more superior beings in the animal kingdom not yet known to (or denied as 'impossible') humans?

Precisely. If you asked a cockroach who was "superior", cockroaches or humans, the cockroach would lack the ability to make that comparison, and at best could only compare humans to itself. If so, then roaches are hardier, reproduce faster, can survive anywhere, feed on anything, etc, and so, to the roach, humans must be "inferior".

We are call ourselves "superior" by using the yardstick(s) that is/are "biased" in our favour, namely our "brain power". Even so, these are yardsticks that we know about. But as you rightly note, we may not even recognise an even more "superior" organism, even if we saw it, just like a roach wouldn't have the "brains" to grasp ours.

Anyway, jsbn, many people, if not most, if not all, have at one time or another gone through or will go through what you are feeling. The questioning and discomfiture that comes with this seemingly human need to know where we came from, what we are, and perhaps, where we are going. This feeling gets channelled in different ways... spirituality, philosophical musings, mid-life crises... Basically, it's what is often refered to as searching for the "meaning of life".

Let me save you the trouble of looking further... the answer is... 42. :devil:

 

[jsbn]

Erm... 42? :dunno:

I guess I had reached that crossroads and sitting in the centre of it watching everything go by. But when ur beliefs for the past 20yrs are challenged at this crossroads, one can't help but look back, doubt and wonder abt the past 20yrs of ur life as well as ur own beliefs that u think u had formulated and got it right but which may be wrong.

Studying Psychology really is a mind screw, I was raising my eyebrow in wonder when my lecturer said, "At the end of it, u will start to rethink everything there is in ur entire life."

Now I'm beginning to see her point.

 

[centuryegg]

There was once a star trek movie in which a powerful alien probe arrived in our solar system. They destroyed a moon to prove their point and gave humans 48 hours to find them two whales to hold a conference, failing which would mean the destruction of Earth.

Only problem, whales were extinct at that time. Basically Humans were regarded as low life compared to whales. haha haha Wonder if that day will happen?