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In addition to our ability to throw shit, humans also have some of the best endurance that mammals have to offer. An example of this is the Human V Horse race in Wales. The race is a 22-mile / 35-kilometer marathon that takes place in mountainous terrain. Normally, a horse would beat a human in a race without a problem. But in a marathon, humans actually stand a chance with an occasional victor in this specific annual race. All due to our exceptional endurance.
Put the projectiles and endurance together, and we make for a terrifying hunter. Imagine you’re some other animal out in the wild. Maybe you’re really fast or really strong. But if a determined human really wants to try and kill you, there’s no out-running it. It’ll catch up eventually. And if you choose to fight the human, they’ll get the first blow.
Let’s also add on that humans used a tactic called “persistence hunting”, in which you follow after some animal at a brisk pace startling it every time it tries to rest. With nothing more than sweat glands, pointy sticks and ridiculous endurance, we marathon jogged some species to extinction!
That’s what made dogs perfect as pets.
Our ancestors noticed these animals that would follow us around in packs. They could generally keep up with us, form bonds easily, were pretty good at killing, and mostly ate the parts of the animals we didn’t.
We just chose the ones who were coolest with us and just bred the ones who loved us the most.
There are other animals that fit this description, but dogs are the only ones that also happen to reproduce fast enough that you could feasibly notice the improvement in behavior over generations.
In soviet russia, an experiment was made to see if the domestication of dogs could be replicated on foxes, with mild success. Basically all foxes in western Europe today are in some way crossbred from the tamer foxes produced by this experiment, explaining why foxes aren’t completely terrified of humans.
Also, we can and do eat some mild poisons because they’re tasty somehow.
I have a love of chocolate, but smaller animals can’t eat as much without severe metabolic issues that might kill them.
And capsaicin is straight-up an anti-mammal deterrent. Birds might be able to eat it with no reaction at all. Meanwhile humans just deal with their temperature receptors being freaking hacked for seemingly no other reason than fun.
The poison thing is relative, there are animals that can eat things toxic to us and vice versa.
And we eat some because we enjoy altered mental states.
Deadly systemic insecticide? Roll me one.
Honestly if chocolate killed me I’d probably still eat it
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mild poisons
Hyped to see HFY being rederived from First Principles
But if a determined human really wants to try and kill you, there’s no out-running it. It’ll catch up eventually.
We are the metaphorical snail that relentlessly pursues to kill.
A lot of horror stories rely on humans being persistence hunted in some way
See: every slasher movie ever.
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and don’t forget that humans have excellent and precise communication skills, too. At least in theory. One human might not be able to kill the wild animal, but a group can.
Human V Horse race in Wales
When it’s hot out, the human wins. When it’s cold/cool, humans can’t stand a chance against the horses. Similarly, wolves and dogs can easily outrun humans in the cold, but lose to humans when it’s hot.
That’s because the biggest comparative advantage that humans have is actually thermal management while running, not the act of running itself.
Humans sweat. This means we can actually perform intense exercise even in heat, without overheating as easily as most other animals. Most quadruped mammals pant to cool, and have their breaths tied to their steps while running, so they can’t cool themselves efficiently while on the move. Persistence hunting doesn’t tire out prey, but actually overheats the prey to where they can’t run any further.
Throw in the fact that we can throw, handle weapons while running, climb shit, talk, invent things, etc., and we really have been a deadly species for long before industrialization.
Do they actually allow the horses to run to exhaustion in the heat?
Googling
No, there are mandatory vet checks that can last large amounts of time that are deducted from all horses time. So the cold/heat makes a negligible difference, the horses get long rest periods either way and have historically often won even in years where it was very hot.
It’s not a negligible difference. The race results for that specific race are correlated with temperature during the race. The horses naturally hold back on their speed when it’s hot out, to prevent running to exhaustion. This is borne out by statistical results comparing speeds for horse races generally, not just the human versus horse race.
Note that horses generally are much faster than humans, even over distance, so the trend lines wouldn’t cross unless very hot, to where it would literally be dangerous for either species to be running.
It just occurred to me we’re long-range heat-seeking missiles
I remember reading somewhere that the primitive human used to hunt just like that, keep following the prey in marathon, tracking their foot step, and slowly drain out the stamina of a prey. Sprinting takes a lot of energy in all animal so it kinda makes sense.
Tracking skills would also have to be part of the arsenal, otherwise something could just run far enough fast enough that we couldn’t find it, despite our endurance.
I must be a lesser ape then because I can’t aim for shit
You have the ability to. Doesn’t mean you have the skill
I tried so so hard to learn and though throughout my childhood and teens and I can’t for the life of me figure it out. Might be an autism thing?
Could have been a coaching issue or mechanical issue. My son is only 9 but loves baseball and I somehow managed to instill some bad habits in his throwing technique early on so he struggles with consistency at this point. He can throw hard and accurately, but when he forgets to focus on the mechanics we’re working on fixing, he loses all accuracy.
Consistency and mechanics are key for sustained accuracy, and while I don’t know your background, if you never had a coach help you with your form, it’s not surprising that you struggle with accuracy.
That makes sense actually! Might be some combination. I was never specifically instructed how exactly to throw, but all the other kids didn’t seem to struggle like I did. Lack of coordination is a general problem for me. But now I’m intrigued to find out if I could learn with proper instruction
Definitely! It’s never too late to learn a new skill, especially with YouTube and the Internet available. I’d try looking up some videos specific to the type of throwing you want to learn, especially if there are some videos focused on fundamentals or teaching kids
TIL I could be out-pitched by most other apes because I’m so weak. I am a shame of a human.
Transcription:
vriskalazuli
to add to this “humans are weird” thing did you know that humans are the only species on earth with the ability to throw things with any significant degree of accuracy and force (apes can throw with about the force of a human ten year old, but cant lock their wrists well enough for accuracy)
and we just never really think about it bc its so easy and simple to us that pretty much all of our sports are based around the concept of throwing things accurately
so
what if the concept of projectile weapons takes most species FOREVER to get the hang of, or even come up with in the first place. a human goes onto a ship and throws some trash into the nearest reclaimer, shouts “kobe!” and all the other aliens on board absolutely LOSE THEIR MINDS145,819 notes
TIL, I might not be human.
username checks out
Oddly, the title, as formed, works just as well, as one can see, without commas.
A sentence, can, never have, too many, commas! I’m William, Shatner.
Proof positive that man was created by
goddog.Must be a god among apes
I mean duh. Have you guys read 2001: A Space Odyssey?
Yeah, our ancestors literally threw bones up into the air and turned them into spaceships, of course we’re gods.
This sounds fake
What, that humans are freakishly good at throwing things, or that aliens don’t have the ability to throw things?
Nope, we are really fucking good at throwing. Basically we created a feadback loop due to how throwing with more accuracy and force was better for hunting and defense that it increased survival ratings. This in turn meant those who threw better got to breed while those who didnt died.
I wonder if the inherent ability to do the physics required to do an accurate throw fed into humanity’s ability to do maths?
Probably not. In calculus class, our teacher showed us a video showing a dog finding the quickest path to catch a ball using the trajectory of the ball to predict where the ball would land and its own knowledge of its swimming versus running speeds to predict the best place at which to enter the water the ball would land in. The human had thrown the projectile into a river, and the dog started running as soon as the human released the ball. The video was taken from above, and it had been edited to show the audience the calculus required to find the optimal path. The dog followed this path exactly.
But dogs aren’t good at math. I don’t know how you would get a dog to attempt an algebra problem, but they probably couldn’t do it. The calculation required to throw a ball accurately or decide when to cross into the river is probably more instinctual.
You’re begging the question – dogs are good at math! Even if they can’t read or write differential equations, they’re solving the problem posed to them!
Good problem-solvers, but not good at math bc they can’t show their work or write a proof or explain how they got to the result beyond “I don’t know, it just feels right”.
Isn’t math defined as the logical steps to get from axioms to theorems, followed by the application of theorems to specific problems? Dogs don’t do that, they just guess (and often guess correctly).
I dont think math has a specific definition like that, but I will say other animals can’t do what dogs do. Also, we often do think of math as written symbols, but that’s our human/academic perspective. Math is far more fundamental than that. All we’re doing is modeling the math inherent to the universe.
other animals can’t do what dogs do.
You make a good point. Thanks for the perspective.
the archerfish can accurately spit jets of water to hunt inscects … I’m sure there are much more examples of other species accurately throwing things around. we’re not that special …
This is a pretty big stretch. I wouldn’t say spitting and throwing are comparable.
I’m interested in hearing about the other examples of species accurately throwing things though.
it is not such a stretch. according to Oxford dictionary, to throw is :
1.propel (something) with force through the air by a movement of the arm and hand.
which is a very human concept. We then can not judge other species ability to do it (exept primates). just like we can not say animals don’t have languages because thay don’t speak english.
2.send suddenly into a particular state or condition.
The archer fish is then very efficient at sending water into a particular state or condition with high accuracy.
the octopus for exemple has been observed throwing stuff around.
edit : elephants do it to. and you can find plenty of bird examples.
The whole point was the unique and exceptional nature of specifically human throwing, of course the judgment will be levied against other species.
If you were talking about animals great at spitting with accuracy, the archerfish takes the prize.
If we were talking about the fastest animal on earth, we probably look at a falcon in a dive.
If we’re looking at the species with the best accurate throwing ability? Humans win.
Again, that’s the whole point of the post. That humans are uniquely good at the skill.
You know which animal is great at having brains distributed throughout its tentacles? Octopi. They’re better at having brains in their tentacles than other species.
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What the fuck man
Wrong thread?
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