Mother Nature is cruel and we are at the pinnacle. It’s kind of cool to see such sentiments that are so uncharacteristic for the cold, dark universe. I wonder if there is a single place out there where similar behaviours could develop. Would anyone else view them as we do or is it intrinsically human?
Just take chimps for example. The males much rather eat their own child after the mother dies, than take care of it themselves. Females only can take care of one child at a time. So they are cool watching an orphan die from neglect or cannibalism.
Take dolphins. The males gang up on females to force her to mate. If she refuses, they drown her.
Zebra’s and many other species go out of their way to kill foals just so that the mother goes into estrus sooner. Giving the male a chance to force copulation.
Storks build their nest above croc infesed land/water. This is to scare off predators. They also have the habit of evicting young that are either too weak (due to disease or bullying) or are oo aggressive (too much of a bully to other nest mates). The parents can’t feed every chick, especially as they get bigger. So they get rid of some. Resulting in a mutualistic relationship between the croc and stork. It’s a lot more common than you’d think.
Lions form coalitions to kill lion cubs, just to get lionesses to stop lactating and go into estrus sooner. Lionesses sometimes kill their own young if they have only 1 cub left. Better kill it, go into estrus and cook up a new batch sooner.
Beachmasters are known to crush newborn elephant seals to death. Simply because they were too close to their mother who just gave birth to it. Ever seen one of these jerks run? It’s glorious.
Parasite birds form mobs to destroy nests that managed to evict their chicks.
And insects aren’t much better either. Sadly I forget the name of the bug that pins down a female, forces copulation and then throws her out of the tree. I get the pinning part, but the throwing out of the tree bit just seems extra.
Then there is ofcourse rampant cannibalism in insects and spiders. Females produce more offspring if they eat the male. And some spider species, the female turns herself into a meal for her children in a feezing frenzy.
It’s true that pigs are smarter than dogs. And they make wonderful pets. But we also farm pigs ourselves instead of hunting them to extinction. 3.5 million pigs per day, for 7+ billion humans. Not only that, sallow and bones are used for soaps, candles, biofuel, calcium supplementation and for some reason… making sugar white. That sounds as efficient as eating meat can be. Lots of animals just leave the rest of the carcass to rot. If it wasn’t for condors/vultures to fill up the niche and clean up the mess, it would poison the water for everyone. As we see in area’s where vultures are threatened.
Plenty of other animals are intelligient, and are killed by other intelligient animals. Take birds. They are pretty damn smart. Ever heard of the shrike bird who impales prey to mark its territory/woo females with food storage displays? The prey is alive upon impaling. Usually dead by the time a female dismembers the corpse. Isn’t nature just romantic? Or what about humans being attacked by “dumber” predators. Humans may be intelligient, but it sure doesn’t stop a hungry tiger/polar bear/hyena/etc. I don’t think murder/hunting an “intelligient” is a good reason to label humans as worse than average. Though I do agree that pigs deserve better housing and space to express natural behaviours. Something mass farms don’t allow.
A sea turtle (forgot the name) doesn’t seem to eat the roots of the grass, but still pulls all of the plant out of the sand. Making it harder for the plant to grow back. Just like them, we screw ourselves over long-term.
Are we really the worst nature has to offer? I think we aren’t per se. I think most animals given the oppertunity would destroy their enviroment, until they screw themselves over and a new balance in the ecosystem forms. Invasive species aren’t a menace in the ecosystem they come from, only in spaces they aren’t balanced in. We humans still need to adapt, and are lucky to be able to understand the impact we have long term.
Given how powerful and effective the strategy of cooperation and trust seem to be in humans, I find it extremely likely to be a common strategy.
I also don’t think aliens lacking empathy would generally be capable of forming civilizations, so they’d be stuck at the hunter gatherer stage. It is almost a truism that amongst us humans, as empathy and trust in eachother breaks down, civilization stops functioning.
I think morality is a human social construct. A very beautiful one though but one that can only exist to various degrees if there is certain level of comfort and prosperity.
Ultimately it is merely a tiny splinter in the vast cosmos. I like it nevertheless and sticking to it makes me feel good. I like to get high
Mother Nature is cruel and we are at the pinnacle. It’s kind of cool to see such sentiments that are so uncharacteristic for the cold, dark universe. I wonder if there is a single place out there where similar behaviours could develop. Would anyone else view them as we do or is it intrinsically human?
Are aliens cannibals?
I mean. Humans are mid on the asshole olympics.
Just take chimps for example. The males much rather eat their own child after the mother dies, than take care of it themselves. Females only can take care of one child at a time. So they are cool watching an orphan die from neglect or cannibalism.
Take dolphins. The males gang up on females to force her to mate. If she refuses, they drown her.
Zebra’s and many other species go out of their way to kill foals just so that the mother goes into estrus sooner. Giving the male a chance to force copulation.
Storks build their nest above croc infesed land/water. This is to scare off predators. They also have the habit of evicting young that are either too weak (due to disease or bullying) or are oo aggressive (too much of a bully to other nest mates). The parents can’t feed every chick, especially as they get bigger. So they get rid of some. Resulting in a mutualistic relationship between the croc and stork. It’s a lot more common than you’d think.
Lions form coalitions to kill lion cubs, just to get lionesses to stop lactating and go into estrus sooner. Lionesses sometimes kill their own young if they have only 1 cub left. Better kill it, go into estrus and cook up a new batch sooner.
Beachmasters are known to crush newborn elephant seals to death. Simply because they were too close to their mother who just gave birth to it. Ever seen one of these jerks run? It’s glorious.
Parasite birds form mobs to destroy nests that managed to evict their chicks.
And insects aren’t much better either. Sadly I forget the name of the bug that pins down a female, forces copulation and then throws her out of the tree. I get the pinning part, but the throwing out of the tree bit just seems extra.
Then there is ofcourse rampant cannibalism in insects and spiders. Females produce more offspring if they eat the male. And some spider species, the female turns herself into a meal for her children in a feezing frenzy.
Humans aren’t so bad.
The difference is scale.
Looking at just one animal we eat: pigs. Widely known as a quite intelligent animal.
In 2019, 1.3 billion pigs were slaughtered. That’s “billion” with a “B”. So every day that year- 3.5 MILLION pigs are killed by humans. Every. Day.
It’s true that pigs are smarter than dogs. And they make wonderful pets. But we also farm pigs ourselves instead of hunting them to extinction. 3.5 million pigs per day, for 7+ billion humans. Not only that, sallow and bones are used for soaps, candles, biofuel, calcium supplementation and for some reason… making sugar white. That sounds as efficient as eating meat can be. Lots of animals just leave the rest of the carcass to rot. If it wasn’t for condors/vultures to fill up the niche and clean up the mess, it would poison the water for everyone. As we see in area’s where vultures are threatened.
Plenty of other animals are intelligient, and are killed by other intelligient animals. Take birds. They are pretty damn smart. Ever heard of the shrike bird who impales prey to mark its territory/woo females with food storage displays? The prey is alive upon impaling. Usually dead by the time a female dismembers the corpse. Isn’t nature just romantic? Or what about humans being attacked by “dumber” predators. Humans may be intelligient, but it sure doesn’t stop a hungry tiger/polar bear/hyena/etc. I don’t think murder/hunting an “intelligient” is a good reason to label humans as worse than average. Though I do agree that pigs deserve better housing and space to express natural behaviours. Something mass farms don’t allow.
A sea turtle (forgot the name) doesn’t seem to eat the roots of the grass, but still pulls all of the plant out of the sand. Making it harder for the plant to grow back. Just like them, we screw ourselves over long-term.
Are we really the worst nature has to offer? I think we aren’t per se. I think most animals given the oppertunity would destroy their enviroment, until they screw themselves over and a new balance in the ecosystem forms. Invasive species aren’t a menace in the ecosystem they come from, only in spaces they aren’t balanced in. We humans still need to adapt, and are lucky to be able to understand the impact we have long term.
Stag beetle
Given how powerful and effective the strategy of cooperation and trust seem to be in humans, I find it extremely likely to be a common strategy.
I also don’t think aliens lacking empathy would generally be capable of forming civilizations, so they’d be stuck at the hunter gatherer stage. It is almost a truism that amongst us humans, as empathy and trust in eachother breaks down, civilization stops functioning.
If you lean towards moral truth being at least somewhat universal, then this wouldn’t be intrinsically human at all.
I think morality is a human social construct. A very beautiful one though but one that can only exist to various degrees if there is certain level of comfort and prosperity.
Ultimately it is merely a tiny splinter in the vast cosmos. I like it nevertheless and sticking to it makes me feel good. I like to get high