this post was submitted on 17 Mar 2025
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Which makes me ask, why were mammals able to evolve to produce an apex predator that relies on it's inventiveness (Humans) in quite a short time, but no similar "dinosaur" got to that point in a much longer period?
We're searching planets for signs of life as a pre-cursor to intelligent life, but there's no guarantee that life will evolve in the same direction as ours.
Corvids and psittacines display human child level intelligence. They use tools. They recognize other people. Hell the psittacines can mimic speech.
I personally suspect it's a matter of energy density. Birds have to use almost all of their available calories on flying. Doesn't leave a lot of energy left over for a massively hungry brain. No clue what's holding back penguins, emus, and cassowaries.
But flying is quite energy efficient as a method of getting from point A to point B. That's why flying insects and birds have had such evolutionary success with that strategy.
Is it though? They have to eat an absolute ton relative to their own mass. At least all the birds I've ever interacted with were constantly eating, even when they mostly didn't bother flying. Chicken soccer is what I called feeding the chickens. No patience whatsoever.
My mother used to say that her sons eat like birds, a peck at a time, and twice our own body weight daily.
While we humans eat a lot, something like 50% of our calories are going to our brains. I'm not sure most birds could actually increase their caloric intake enough to be able to evolve bigger brains than they already have. Maybe if we designed them some super foods, but that seems to be cheating, to me.
Dang, I'll have to remember this next time my ADHD pushes me to hyperfocus and I risk skipping meals again. O.O
The difference is that they decided not to be parasitic narcissistic global suicide "apex" who gave no fucks, literally, about our will-no-longer-exist "children."
You're so narcissistic you will refuse to admit that they weren't stupid. The very way you will chose to be exactly that by denying the obvious as I lay it out so blatantly that your ego cries and denies ad infinitum.
Edit: Yeah and it's okay. Those downvotes will save anyone's life on this planet. Adiós!
Now you get it. :)