888
keep going lads! (lemmy.world)
top 50 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[-] PrinceWith999Enemies@lemmy.world 203 points 11 months ago

Evolutionary biologist here.

I know this is a recurring meme, and it does have a basis in truth. However, in my opinion, it vastly overemphasizes a single aspect of early humans at the expense of other and more important distinct human qualities (and I’m using this term to also refer to our closely related species and ancestors).

First, the real distinction is sociality. Humans are the most cooperative species of hominid. As someone once said, you will never see two chimpanzees carrying a log together. This translates into being able to coordinate efficient hunting practices in a variety of ecosystems.

Second, and very related, is social learning. Other species can also exhibit social learning, but never to the degree humans do. Most species figure out things in evolutionary time - what counts as food, what counts as danger, the best way to do X, etc. Humans do it daily and pass it on to each other. We learn to kill prey by setting fires in grasslands. We develop tools and teach each other how to make and use them. These are all interlocking effects. The bigger our brains get, the more helpless our babies are, so the more we need societies, which creates increasingly complex social dynamics, which rewards more complex brains, and so on.

In short, it’s intelligence and social learning replacing learning in evolutionary time that made humans successful, possibly to the point of self destruction.

[-] can@sh.itjust.works 71 points 11 months ago

possibly to the point of self destruction.

Ah, an optimist

[-] lanolinoil@lemmy.world 44 points 11 months ago

As someone once said, you will never see two chimpanzees carrying a log together.

Such a great point that really drives home just how much we cooperate and take it for granted.

[-] SkyeStarfall@lemmy.blahaj.zone 11 points 10 months ago

And then people say competition is what makes society go around.

Nah, cooperation is the core of everything we do, and we should embrace it as much as possible.

load more comments (1 replies)
[-] rustydrd@sh.itjust.works 12 points 11 months ago

This was a very cool and eloquent explanation. Thank you!

[-] Jackinopolis@sh.itjust.works 9 points 11 months ago

How much does sleep and dreaming contribute to this? Have you looked into how humans dream compared to other animals? Any papers to point to?

[-] PrinceWith999Enemies@lemmy.world 12 points 11 months ago

That’s a fascinating question. I am not sure about animal research on dreaming, but Thomas Metzinger is an experimental philosopher (for want of a better term) who studies the basis of the concept of the self as a coherent entity, and his work includes extensive research on phenomena like lucid dreaming, phantom limbs, and out of body experiences. I’m not talking about anything paranormal - there’s conditions under which people’s experience of perception and self become separated from our ordinary experience of “my self is sitting behind my eyeballs.” He collaborates closely with experimental psychologists and neuroscientists, so between his work and references you might be able to see if there’s a correlation.

load more comments (1 replies)
[-] Asifall@lemmy.world 8 points 10 months ago

Interesting, I admit that I didn’t realize until I just did a little research that persistence hunting as a significant feature in early humans isn’t actually well supported by much if any evidence.

Are there other theories on why humans seem to be almost uniquely good at distance running? Is it a spandrel?

[-] PrinceWith999Enemies@lemmy.world 10 points 10 months ago

That’s a fantastic question!

There’s archeological evidence that modern humans were far more mobile than we have generally assumed (see eg David Graeber), but we’re talking 10-20k years ago there, which is very recent in evolutionary time where we’d be talking about physical adaptations.

SJ Gould, who was the origin of the spandrel idea, warned frequently against telling “just so” stories to try to reverse engineer the processes of selection that led to this or that feature. However, I do think that the hominid physique enabled multiple things. It has been observed that you won’t ever see a spider or octopus or dolphin moving fire from one place to another. That’s something that bipeds are able to do, and fire is one of the things we think was a key development. It’s the same with generalized tool use. So we can see there may have been multiple selection pressures leading towards bipedalism.

If distance running were truly a spandrel, we’d have to say that it was a consequence of these selective pressures giving rise to the body plan, but wasn’t itself selected for. I’d be more conservative on that one, and hazard a guess that distance running (or efficiency in long distance movement) was also a selective pressure. I just don’t think the evidence is there to say that it was the dominant one at that time.

load more comments (2 replies)
[-] Sanctus@lemmy.world 111 points 11 months ago

Mom! Look what I can do! profusely sweats

[-] RockAndGnome@lemmy.world 19 points 11 months ago

"stop shedding hair young man!"

[-] random_character_a@lemmy.world 11 points 11 months ago

...I also smell profusely like musky urine.

[-] ivanafterall@kbin.social 15 points 11 months ago

It isn't polite to brag, sweetie.

[-] InfiniWheel@lemmy.one 83 points 11 months ago

Humanity's secret weapon: power walking

[-] IrateAnteater@sh.itjust.works 41 points 11 months ago
[-] bastian_5@sh.itjust.works 8 points 11 months ago

And throwing shit very well

[-] eezeebee@lemmy.ca 30 points 11 months ago
[-] qooqie@lemmy.world 60 points 11 months ago

It’s a fucking horror movie trying to run from something like that

[-] GBU_28@lemm.ee 20 points 11 months ago

The snail is terrifying.

You get lots of wealth, but a magic snail is trying to find you. If it touches you, you die.

You cannot track or kill or permanently trap it, it is constant moving towards you.

Something like that

[-] funkless_eck@sh.itjust.works 13 points 11 months ago

Snail takes a 1.3 days to crawl a mile, 280 miles a year. With a huge amount of wealth you can just move to the otherside of the country or ocean every 6 or 7 years.

[-] GBU_28@lemm.ee 14 points 11 months ago

The snail is intelligent and understands transportation.

Still take the deal?

load more comments (6 replies)
[-] Zehzin@lemmy.world 8 points 11 months ago

I can't permanently trap it, so I can put it in a safe that opens after like 1000 years?

load more comments (3 replies)
load more comments (8 replies)
[-] RockAndGnome@lemmy.world 9 points 11 months ago

*Halloween music gets more intense

load more comments (3 replies)
[-] lugal@sopuli.xyz 29 points 11 months ago

Speak for yourself! I get tired easily

[-] RockAndGnome@lemmy.world 15 points 11 months ago

It's ok, I saved you some Mammoth.

[-] ivanafterall@kbin.social 12 points 11 months ago

I just woke up and I'm so tired.

load more comments (1 replies)
[-] Shiggles@sh.itjust.works 24 points 11 months ago

I dunno if a thrown spear counts as “short range” in a primitive world

[-] HikingVet@lemmy.ca 25 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

Atlatls are over 20000 y/o and are futher range than just spears.

Bow and arrows show up in the archaeological record ~70000 years ago.

So, yeah both those are longer range than spears and predate writing and use of most metals.

So if you consider pre bronze age primitive; yes spears are short range.

[-] Stache_@lemmy.ml 10 points 11 months ago

Heck, slings were around even before bow and arrows and can definitely be considered long range

[-] TopRamenBinLaden@sh.itjust.works 7 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

We probably got pretty good at picking birds out of trees with those things back when our dinner depended on it. There were definitely some impressive acts of slingery going on at some point.

[-] EatYouWell@lemmy.world 9 points 11 months ago

They recently discovered evidence that the atlatl was used 30,000 years ago.

load more comments (1 replies)
[-] threeduck@aussie.zone 24 points 11 months ago

Hey who you calling primit-

Primittititiv-...

HOO

HOOOO HOOO HAA HAAAAAA

load more comments (3 replies)
[-] samus12345@lemmy.world 23 points 11 months ago

"That Terminator is out there. It can't be bargained with. It can't be reasoned with. It doesn't feel pity, or remorse, or fear. And it absolutely will not stop, ever, until you are dead!"

load more comments (1 replies)
[-] ZeroXHunter@lemmy.world 10 points 10 months ago

Let's not kid ourselves, the real reason is the POWER OF FRIENDSHIP!

[-] grey@discuss.tchncs.de 8 points 10 months ago

And then somebody invented the idea of THROWING a rock and suddenly the game of earth is SOLVED.

[-] squiblet@kbin.social 8 points 11 months ago

Humans never get tired from exercise?

[-] Cannibal_MoshpitV3@lemmy.world 56 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

Humans have the highest capacity for endurance and for a very long time we hunted not by being smarter but by literally following animals until they got tired and gave up before we did.

[-] nixcamic@lemmy.world 26 points 11 months ago

I believe certain breeds of dogs and horses can keep up with us, but only because we bred them to.

[-] JoMiran@lemmy.ml 24 points 11 months ago

Early human to wolf: "You stalk. I stalk. Stalk together?"

Wolf: "Us BFF4Eva hairless ape"

The most enduring love story in human history.

[-] name_NULL111653@pawb.social 19 points 11 months ago
[-] JoMiran@lemmy.ml 17 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)
load more comments (1 replies)
[-] Zehzin@lemmy.world 7 points 11 months ago

I will kill for this creature

load more comments (2 replies)
[-] 0ops@lemm.ee 14 points 11 months ago

To follow an animal often required tracking it when it ran out of sight. Our sense of smell stinks, so we looked for clues on where it went. That's smart

load more comments (2 replies)
[-] ssboomman@lemm.ee 14 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

That, plus we are good at throwing things and we sweat. Which means we have range and we can cool off while still being active.

[-] Hyperreality@kbin.social 7 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

The thing with a lot of animals is also that they're pretty dumb.

They could potentially out walk us, it's the most energy efficient way of moving, but what they actually do is run off when they see a human, then when they no longer see the human, they take a break. At which point the human catches up. At which point they run off again. Repeat multiple times.

The human simply has to keep walking, while the animal keeps running off. If the animal instead walked, the human would never or take far longer to catch up, because the animal would tire itself far less.

load more comments (4 replies)
load more comments (1 replies)
[-] 0ops@lemm.ee 28 points 11 months ago

If they're fit, not too tired. Humans are some of the best distance runners in the animal kingdom, and we can walk virtually forever. And we can regulate our own body temperature by sweating. And we can carry some extra food and water with us. And we are capable of being excellent trackers as well. The joke in the op is about how humans used to hunt - by chasing an animal until it collapses of exhaustion. Some tribes still do this today

[-] Voyajer@lemmy.world 10 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)
[-] GBU_28@lemm.ee 9 points 11 months ago

As a group we do not. Grab 5 buddies, take turns jogging, follow a deer until it either falls off a cliff/gets exhausted/makes some other mistake.

If it runs, chill, just spread out and keep it in sight.

This is how the human do

load more comments (4 replies)
[-] CurlyMoustache@lemmy.world 8 points 11 months ago

Depends on what you mean exercise. Sprinting will tire you out, but you will quickly be ready again. Walking you can do almost forever. If you have a decent amount of fat on your body, you are basically a perpetuum mobile (sleep excluded, of course). Your footwear will go before you tire.

load more comments (1 replies)
load more comments (2 replies)
load more comments
view more: next ›
this post was submitted on 13 Dec 2023
888 points (98.2% liked)

Lemmy Shitpost

26697 readers
3668 users here now

Welcome to Lemmy Shitpost. Here you can shitpost to your hearts content.

Anything and everything goes. Memes, Jokes, Vents and Banter. Though we still have to comply with lemmy.world instance rules. So behave!


Rules:

1. Be Respectful


Refrain from using harmful language pertaining to a protected characteristic: e.g. race, gender, sexuality, disability or religion.

Refrain from being argumentative when responding or commenting to posts/replies. Personal attacks are not welcome here.

...


2. No Illegal Content


Content that violates the law. Any post/comment found to be in breach of common law will be removed and given to the authorities if required.

That means:

-No promoting violence/threats against any individuals

-No CSA content or Revenge Porn

-No sharing private/personal information (Doxxing)

...


3. No Spam


Posting the same post, no matter the intent is against the rules.

-If you have posted content, please refrain from re-posting said content within this community.

-Do not spam posts with intent to harass, annoy, bully, advertise, scam or harm this community.

-No posting Scams/Advertisements/Phishing Links/IP Grabbers

-No Bots, Bots will be banned from the community.

...


4. No Porn/ExplicitContent


-Do not post explicit content. Lemmy.World is not the instance for NSFW content.

-Do not post Gore or Shock Content.

...


5. No Enciting Harassment,Brigading, Doxxing or Witch Hunts


-Do not Brigade other Communities

-No calls to action against other communities/users within Lemmy or outside of Lemmy.

-No Witch Hunts against users/communities.

-No content that harasses members within or outside of the community.

...


6. NSFW should be behind NSFW tags.


-Content that is NSFW should be behind NSFW tags.

-Content that might be distressing should be kept behind NSFW tags.

...

If you see content that is a breach of the rules, please flag and report the comment and a moderator will take action where they can.


Also check out:

Partnered Communities:

1.Memes

2.Lemmy Review

3.Mildly Infuriating

4.Lemmy Be Wholesome

5.No Stupid Questions

6.You Should Know

7.Comedy Heaven

8.Credible Defense

9.Ten Forward

10.LinuxMemes (Linux themed memes)


Reach out to

All communities included on the sidebar are to be made in compliance with the instance rules. Striker

founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS