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Anonymous
ITT we discuss anthropocentrism- the belief that humans are superior to animals

what does /an/ think?
>> Anonymous
Is that thing... carrying its eggs... on its chest...?
>> Anonymous
no its a mating thing, like a du-flap on a lizard
>> Anonymous
We are superior to animals.
>> Anonymous
Use of tools
Thought beyond instinct
Culture
Ability to invent
Global dispersal due to ability to adapt

Sure, we can't fly without machines and aren't built for combat without weapons and protection, but I think there is no BELIEF that humans are superoir to animals; there is only fact.
>> Anonymous
>>323395

Tools: crows, ravens, seagulls, apes
Thought: every animal
Culture: dolphins and apes, birds
"Global dispersal": anything that can swim/fly across the ocean (snakes, fish, marine mammals, birds), or climb aboard something else that travels across the ocean (rats, bugs, etc)
>> Anonymous
>>323400
>Thought: every animal

laughingelfman.jpg
>> Anonymous
Yes humans are superior
but it makes me rage when christfags say that it was because God favor us over animals
>> Anonymous
>>323400
It's not so much the use of objects as tools that makes humans better than animals, but the ability to make tools. The birds listed can pick up rocks and use them to smash things open and apes can pick up sticks and use them to collect termites, but they can't figure out how to make a bow and arrows or a slingshot or even a spear. It's abstract thinking (the ability to imagine and create) that puts humans above animals.
>> Anonymous
We share the planet with other species. There's no *superior* species. We need to learn how to live in harmony with them. The idea of superiority among species or among humans is idiotic and near sighted. We need to cooperate if we want to survive. If animals and plants disappear, we disappear with them.
>> Anonymous
>>323406
New Caledonian crows can make tools. You fail.
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2002/08/0808_020808_crow.html
>> Anonymous
>>323410
We make better bombs than crows.
>> Anonymous
Sage grouse are awesome.

On topic, we are better at some things than animals, but inferior in other ways. I hold no sense of overwhelming superiority over animals, and the likelihood of me ever feeling that way diminishes with every awesome nature documentary I see.
>> Anonymous
>ITT we discuss anthropocentrism- the belief that humans are superior to OTHER animals.

Fix'd it for you.
>> Anonymous
No species is superior to another - each is evolved for it's particular niche, each is essential in some way to it's environment. (Exceptions lie in invasives, but even then, given a few millennia, they and the enviroment would adapt and they would be necessary, too.) You say we are superior because we're collectively at the top of the food chain? Do you also say the wolf is superior to the caribou? What happens to the wolf if all the prey die? We have cows, but let's take it further: What would happen if all the insects and crawling things died? Our crops would die, from lack of pollination and declining soil quality. Then our cows and livestock would die. We would cannibalize, and then die. We are dependent on animals. No beast is superior to another, regardless of how he may kill and manipulate them.
>> Anonymous
No other animal has yet to create an iphone therefore we are superior.
>> Anonymous
humans are superior and nature can suck a dick
>> Anonymous
i know that in a second my life can be taken by an animal if it is given the chance, but at the same time we can do the same with assistance.

but bare minimum, when it comes down to it, it some animals are superior in physical ability, but were man lacks physical streangth but makes up for it in intelligence.
>> Anonymous
>>323437
Well said anon.
>> Anonymous
>>323538
>lacks physical strength

You know one of the most common techniques ancient man used to kill his prey was simply pursuing it for days until it died of exhaustion, right?
>> Anonymous
>>323561

Really? Thats the first time i've ever heard of this... Gotta source?

That being said, how about you go wrestle a tiger? :D Or a bear, or a lion, or a whale.
>> Anonymous
>>323561
think of it this way, humans really do lack real physical strength.

we have brains, learning capability, endurance and the ability to out think an animal,that doesn't say much for strength.

so as i said, pick a fight against a tiger, shark, elephant, rhino, see how long you last.

shit try taking a fight against a poison dart frog...animals can kill in so many ways.


humans use ingenuity and engineering,
>> Anonymous
In the human world, intelligence gets you success, so obviously we've grown to believe that intelligence = superiority. However, outside of our bubble, having academic intelligence does not necessarily make us superior to an animal that is not as bright but has still survived for millions of years longer than we have, or is more widely dispersed, or stronger, or lives longer, or has better eyesight or hearing or however else you want to determine "superiority," which by the way is totally subjective.

You think an animal that's only been around for ~200,000 years, with poor senses, has a weak body that always requires some external aid (clothing, tools, homes), whose lives depend on more symbiotic relationships than most other animals, that requires 18+ years of being taken care of by parents, and whose only redeeming feature seems to be that they can build things or reflect on the nature of reality is somehow the greatest animal on earth?
>> Anonymous
Humans are superior animals, else we wouldn't be driving so many of them to extinction. They simply can't compete. Most of the animals going extinct are rival predators who are made obsolete by our superiority.
>> Anonymous
i hate that.. i love animals and my parents drag me to the zoo sometimes, thinking that's where i wanna be, but we have no right to cage these animals, we were them, i am a strong believer in evolution,and that one day something stronger will outsmart us and we will be killed off. wonder what we'll say then?
>> Anonymous
>>323589

Nothing is going to evolve to out smart us.

How could they? We're already in that niche.
>> Anonymous
>>323564
we lack strength in comparison to what?...I think you'll find we're stronger than most living things
>> Anonymous
we're top of the fucking food chain you dipshits, we fucking won, we are the kings of the fucking jungle there's no two ways about it we ARE superior to any other animal.
I could go out and destroy any pretender to the throne that I wanted to right now, I can go and live in any environment on the planet or other planet for that matter.
>> Anonymous
>>323400
>Culture: dolphins and apes, birds

I'm sorry it seems that you're a retard
>> Anonymous
>>323589
You don't need to believe in evolution, it's a fucking FACT
>> Anonymous
>>323630
Perhaps, but he is a retard stating a scientific fact. You can't deny it.
>> Anonymous
>>323626
Compared to any anthropoid ape. Seriously, a chimpanzee has many times the strenght of a grown man even though it weighs less. You do not want to end up in hand-to-hand combat with an ape. We are very scrawny, weak primates, but we make up for it with superior brains and dexterous hands that we use to make weapons beyond anything that nature can come up with.
>> Anonymous
     File :-(, x)
Imagine what Shakespeare could have accomplished if he had the eyes of an eagle! Or could spray stink on his critics!
>> Anonymous
>>323382
cool
>> Anonymous
>>323640
>>323630
>>323400

There is a difference between human culture and even very complex animal socialization. We have thousands of years of inherited knowledge specialized in countless niches that we can draw upon to face any situation. An individual human raised away from human culture and without these benefits is just a very smart primate, and I would even go so far as to say that dolphins without he benefit of inherited knowledge are probably as smart or smarter than an individual person with the same disadvantage.

tl;dr We keep records.
>> Anonymous
>You think an animal that's only been around for ~200,000 years, with poor senses, has a weak body that always requires some external aid (clothing, tools, homes), whose lives depend on more symbiotic relationships than most other animals, that requires 18+ years of being taken care of by parents, and whose only redeeming feature seems to be that they can build things or reflect on the nature of reality is somehow the greatest animal on earth?

Poor senses? Human eyesight is pretty good, hearing isnt too bad either... sure smell is nothing compared to some animals but we are still good allround. The human body isn't that weak, sure we don't have the same pure muscle strength a chimp has, but I don't see a chimp running half a marathon, while that is something most fit humans should have no real problem doing (with some training). We only need clothes because we moved to other habitats than the savanna, our skin is pretty effective in getting rid off heat in the habitat the human species originated. And making tools is arguably our greatest strength... it's no weakness to rely on it. Taking a long time to develop our huge brain and the delay in maturity that comes with it is not really a problem when our youth survival rate is pretty high compared to other animals.

Humans are superior to animals in many ways... but so what if we are? It doesn't give us any right to just treat other animals like trash, <INSERT UNCLE BEN SPEECH HERE>.
>> Anonymous
>>323778
I see someone's having difficulty accepting that humans aren't all that unique.
>> Anonymous
>>323781
More like Uncle Tom speech, amirite?
>> Anonymous
Rats and cockroaches would laugh at anthropocentrism when we're extinct, if they could laugh, that is.
>> Anonymous
>>323782
I'm just saying that applying the term culture to animal socialization is inaccurate. Our success is predicated upon our ability to transmit information effectively and culture is how we do it.
>> Anonymous
>>323785
Well, go argue with the ethologists that agree animals have culture. It's not like we're the ones who decide what terminology is appropriate and what's not.
>> Anonymous
>>323784
Actually, rats can laugh.
http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/story?id=626264&page=1
>> Anonymous
>>323784

we will never go extinct until our sun explodes or the earth is split in half by an asteroid the size of 2x moon, humanity already survived under the worst conditions without the technology and knowledge we now possess. So even with a fullscale nuclear war, there will still be places on earth habitable for humans.
>> Anonymous
>>323812
I hope you are fucking joking. In two million years there will be no Homo sapiens. Maybe something descended from us, but probably not near to us to even fit within the Homo genus. There will be nothing resembling humanity left in a billion years, even if it is descended from us. Just look back a billion years. You'd be lucky to find something multicellular. Even if "we" don't ever go extinct, we can't stop genetics from doing it's stuff. And frankly, it's better if we change ourselves voluntarly rather than let blind chance dictate our fate.
>> Anonymous
>>323778
Why don't dolphins keep records? They aren't smart enough. Throw a bunch of humans into the wilderness and they will still pass on knowledge to their offspring. Their offspring will continue to advance if resources permit it.
>> Anonymous
>>323812
We may even survive the death of the sun. Only time will tell. If "humanity" goes extinct it will be because it spread to other planets and the exotic conditions caused the humans to evolve into a myriad of different off-shoots of modern man.
>> Anonymous
Look around you, look at what man has wrought through his strength of will and force of intellect. To say that we are not superior is laughable. We will defeat entropy itself.
>> Anonymous
>>323410Yeah man, my friend worked on that project for her masters, they're fucking cool! We had an aviary full of the fuckers at my postgrad uni.
>>323437You are right, I believe, to an extent. Although, I do not really agree with you. The bottom line is, we exploited an EXTREMELY exploitable niche and have profited exponentially from it. That, I'm afraid, is success. However, monopoly on a market always leads to one thing.. And we all know what that is..
As long as we are on this planet, nothing will overtake us as the dominant species, but, bare in mind we are only considering macrofauna. Microfauna is, and always will be, the dominant force. As far as large mammals go, we kick ass. One cannot help but be amazed at our dexterity and accomplishments plus, furthermore, our adaptability. My biggest problem with humanity... They think 100 yrs is a long time.