Current Events > if humans are the pinnacle of evolution, how come we don't have wings or gills?

(+) Yeah! (+)

or can survive in a vacuum?

fuck, many of us can't even go outside for more than a few hours without getting sunburn
>_>
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Humans aren't the "pinnacle" of evolution, there's no such thing
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scar the 1 posted...

Humans aren't the "pinnacle" of evolution, there's no such thing

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We can survive underwater and in a vacuum.

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We can also fly.

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We are one of the more intelligent lifeforms to evolve. We aren't the pinnacle, we're just lucky.
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scar the 1 posted...

Humans aren't the "pinnacle" of evolution, there's no such thing

Sure there is.

To be the pinnacle doesn't mean we don't suck.
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Tl:dr, we don't have wings or gills cuz we don't need them and intelligence is better.

Because of the way evolution works.
We survive by using our brains and hands, so we're really good at those things. Being able to fly or breath underwater has not been necessary for our survival, so we have not developed those abilities. We can't survive in a vacuum because Earth is not a vacuum so why the hell would that happen? Lol

Persistent traits only show up when they are necessary for the survival of the species. Lucky for us, intelligence carries a lot of good things with it. The ability to organize into relatively comfortable societies, play the video games, eat pizza, etc. We may not have wings or gills but intelligence has allowed us to build machines that fly and "swim" so good for us.
Intelligence is also obviously pretty evolutionarily useful, as evidenced by our success in populating the whole planet.
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Aside from our intelligence we don't have much going for us compared to other animals

If bears were as smart as we were they would take over the world

coh posted...

Aside from our intelligence we don't have much going for us compared to other animals

If bears were as smart as we were they would take over the world

Well... DUH.
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We literally cannot survive without bacteria, so I don't think it is possible to call us the pinacle of evolution when we require countless other species to live inside of us in order to survive.
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coh posted...

Aside from our intelligence we don't have much going for us compared to other animals

That's not true. Our ability to manipulate our digits and our endurance are amazing compared to most animals. Ancient humans (and some African tribes still do this) could hunt animals by simply jogging after them until they died from exhaustion. Other animals might run fast, but they have bad endurance.
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What is the measure of a pinnacle?

If it's biomass, maybe beetles or ants kind of kick ass too.
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Shit, I guess we're all worthless gutter trash then. Don't even SPEAK TO ME bro unless you got some fucking WINGS mate
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coh posted...

scar the 1 posted...

Humans aren't the "pinnacle" of evolution, there's no such thing

Sure there is.

Oh yeah sure, it's just completely arbitrary, vague and meaningless.
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The idea of a pinnacle of evolution is fairly nonsensical unless it's possible to evolve into a god-like being, but as the current peak species we've overcome those through our minds.

Evolution isn't a straight line: it's a skill tree. We've basically maxed out two things: intelligence and distance running. Seriously: it's theorized that our earliest ancestors may have hunted by jogging after prey until it got so tired it just laid down and died.

Cheetahs can run? No, Natsuki, cheetahs can sprint, and they can't get very far, not far enough to get to where an animal that walks upright (like, say, humans) can't track it. You put a cheetah and a greyhound in a 1-mile race, the cheetah is the loser. You put a cheetah and a human in a 3-mile race, the cheetah is dinner.

Look up the "humans are space orcs" meme sometime. Sometimes known as "Earth is space Australia".
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RescueBC posted...

we don't have wings or gills cuz we don't need them and intelligence is better

Yeah pretty much

I mean, tardigrades can survive radiation and massive temperature fluctuations and regydration that but do they REALLY use it? It'll only be advantageous if a massive extinction level event occurs but intelligence and technology is a silver bullet in the game
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scar the 1 posted...

coh posted...

scar the 1 posted...

Humans aren't the "pinnacle" of evolution, there's no such thing

Sure there is.

Oh yeah sure, it's just completely arbitrary, vague and meaningless.

The fact that we can survive in all environments, including space, which no other species has achieved as well as we can win against any other species in combat is relevant
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This isnt how evolution works. Evolution isnt about becoming a peak species, its about evolving to best adapt to your changing surroundings. We cant fly or breathe water because we dont have a biological necessity to do so.

Evolution also isnt change for the sake of change. Sometimes we keep things that are just good enough or otherwise generally dont do us harm. Thats why we still have things like tonsils, appendixes, and tail bones.

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awesome999 posted...

The fact that we can survive in all environments, including space, which no other species has achieved as well as we can win against any other species in combat is relevant

I don't think peak means being the best compared to something lesser.

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My daughter and I just had an argument about this.

Assuming humans still evolved on a world with no land, she said we would all be mermaids. I argued that since there was never any land, we would have evolved more like dolphins.


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Us humans are weak, feeble, selfish, and think we know everything. We have conquered the land, and who knows what lies in the future? Perhaps we will build cities on the skies and oceans. We may even be able to produce wings and gills. But to what Advil? The destruction of the planet
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I need some Advil after that post, sheesh.
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MrKapowski posted...

My daughter and I just had an argument about this.

Assuming humans still evolved on a world with no land, she said we would all be mermaids. I argued that since there was never any land, we would have evolved more like dolphins.

Dolphins evolved from land animals. If there was no land, mammals wouldn't have ever evolved.
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Because we are not the "pinnacle of evolution." There is no pinnacle. There is no end goal to evolution, except to survive and that never ends.
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we evolved intelligence that allowed us to create tools which we used to make artificial "gills" and "wings"

which is to say, we have an evolutionary trait that lets us copy traits any other creature has, or even traits no other creature has

that seems like the closest thing there could be to a "pinnacle" of evolution, certainly it means that members of our species with lesser traits still get to reproduce, breaking the typical cycle
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MrKapowski posted...

My daughter and I just had an argument about this.

Assuming humans still evolved on a world with no land, she said we would all be mermaids. I argued that since there was never any land, we would have evolved more like dolphins.

I'd disagree with both.

The dolphins lineage comes from land creatures readapting to the sea. If there was no land, there would be no dolphins.

Mermaids are just made up.

If I'm not mistaken, I think Octupi are the smartest pure sea lineage.....

#TeamCthulhu?
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Humans don't live underwater.

scar the 1 posted...

Humans aren't the "pinnacle" of evolution, there's no such thing

Do you know who Chuck Norris is?
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ChrisTaka posted...

Do you know who Chuck Norris is?

A really dated meme.

Collat posted...

ChrisTaka posted...

Do you know who Chuck Norris is?

A really dated meme.

I don't believe in dated memes
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This isn't Spore.
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awesome999 posted...

The fact that we can survive in all environments, including space, which no other species has achieved as well as we can win against any other species in combat is relevant

1. Those are arbitrary metrics, it's just as easy to make up arbitrary metrics in which other species win
2. We can't survive in all environments. We can't even reach some environments like deep oceans. There are other species that are more resilient, specifically tardigrades.
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