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Re:It looks like you’re trying to take over the world by ansible on Sunday March 27, 2022 @10:16AM (#30820423)
> We are not the strongest, nor the biggest, nor the fastest, nor the best hearing, or the best seeing species.

That is not strictly true. Even leaving aside the tools argument (a human on a bicycle is vastly more energy efficient over long distances than a wildebeest, for example), our sight and hearing are actually pretty good compared to the rest of the animal kingdom.

For a certain range of tasks, we have the best visual perception of any species. Our eyes themselves are pretty damn good for close-in and medium range work. The pattern recognition processing that input is very, very good due to our big brains. Tasks like being able to detect a tiger moving through the underbrush. Color vision is also very good (at least in daylight) to better pick out ripe fruit and such.

Our directional hearing is better than owls who hunt at night for a living. We can better measure the angle at which a sound source is coming from with around twice the accuracy of an owl. Again due to big brains and very complicated audio processing. The folds in your ears are there for a reason. We aren't as sensitive as other creatures like deer, who can steer their big ears (basically parabolic horns) in a particular direction.

And hand-eye coordination is far above any other species, even other primates.

Don't sell yourself short!

Re:It looks like you’re trying to take over the world by cedricd on Sunday March 27, 2022 @11:32AM (#30821017)
The one skill that we're undeniably the best at in the animal kingdom is throwing. No other animal even comes close.
Re:It looks like you’re trying to take over the world by warent on Sunday March 27, 2022 @12:47PM (#30821697)
Can't this just be chalked down to acquired skill made possible through superior intelligence? i.e if other animals could practice and learn as effectively at us, perhaps a silverback gorilla or something could throw better than humans
Re:It looks like you’re trying to take over the world by adwn on Sunday March 27, 2022 @03:13PM (#30823111)
I don't think so. As far as I know, other primates' arms lack our range of motion – for example, chimpanzees are unable to touch the back of their heads; that makes powerful throwing basically impossible.
Re:It looks like you’re trying to take over the world by ansible on Sunday March 27, 2022 @12:53PM (#30821767)
I don't have a linky for this, but I'm sure people have tried to teach apes & chimps to throw. Aside from chimps teaching themselves to throw poo at zoo visitors.

But in general they don't have the neural hardware to precisely time the release as accurately as we do. Even a millisecond difference changes the trajectory a lot.

Re:It looks like you’re trying to take over the world by Rastonbury on Sunday March 27, 2022 @03:00PM (#30822999)
Wonder how they'd fair if gorillas trained the same way as an olympic thrower
Re:It looks like you’re trying to take over the world by kaba0 on Sunday March 27, 2022 @05:41PM (#30824418)
No source either, but I believe it also has to do with the composition of our muscle fibers. Other apes have more powerful fibers, but this comes at the cost of less accuracy. Throwing requires both.
Re:It looks like you’re trying to take over the world by kevin_thibedeau on Sunday March 27, 2022 @01:26PM (#30822076)
They can't. Powerful throwing requires use of the legs that no other primate can match.
Re:It looks like you’re trying to take over the world by ALittleLight on Sunday March 27, 2022 @11:49AM (#30821182)
A human on a bicycle is only more efficient than a wildebeest if the course being traveled is paved. If you had to bike the path a wildebeest roams you might not make it.
Re:It looks like you’re trying to take over the world by tjr225 on Sunday March 27, 2022 @04:09PM (#30823614)
Re:It looks like you’re trying to take over the world by ALittleLight on Sunday March 27, 2022 @07:38PM (#30825282)
Are you suggesting this bike can follow a wildebeest? Even in the pictures it's on paths paved with gravel.
Re:It looks like you’re trying to take over the world by rjsw on Sunday March 27, 2022 @12:32PM (#30821567)
Our endurance at running is pretty good too, we can chase any prey until it is too tired to escape.
Re:It looks like you’re trying to take over the world by dorgo on Sunday March 27, 2022 @03:22PM (#30823174)
I mean, humans compete against horses and win sometimes:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Man_versus_Horse_Marathon

Re:It looks like you’re trying to take over the world by warent on Sunday March 27, 2022 @12:49PM (#30821717)
True, I remember reading that humans are the only animals that sweat. Some animals like hippos create thick oily sebaceous sweat but I don't think any other animals just spill water from their pores like us. That's what gives us such incredible endurance
Re:It looks like you’re trying to take over the world by NeoTar on Sunday March 27, 2022 @01:03PM (#30821839)
I was intrigued by your comment, and did five minutes research,

Apparently you're half right - pretty much every mammal will sweat to some degree (its almost a defining feature of mammals - mammary glands are modified sweat glands) - but only a limited number of mammals sweat heavily, horses being another notable example.

Re:It looks like you’re trying to take over the world by thaumasiotes on Sunday March 27, 2022 @01:40PM (#30822216)
> Our endurance at running is pretty good too, we can chase any prey until it is too tired to escape.

That is not correct; endurance hunting is about walking, not running.

Re:It looks like you’re trying to take over the world by adwn on Sunday March 27, 2022 @03:22PM (#30823176)
No, endurance hunting is mostly about running. To quote Wikipedia [1]:

"Persistence hunting (sometimes called endurance hunting) is a hunting technique in which hunters, who may be slower than their prey over short distances, use a combination of running, walking and tracking to keep pursuing prey over prolonged time and distance until it is exhausted by fatigue or overheating. A persistence hunter must be able to run a long distance over an extended period."

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Persistence_hunting

Re:It looks like you’re trying to take over the world by DiggyJohnson on Tuesday March 29, 2022 @03:00AM (#30839639)
At this point, this is an argument about sources. You are winning by half a point by restating the Wikipedia page =p
Re:It looks like you’re trying to take over the world by jerryzh on Wednesday March 30, 2022 @12:55PM (#30857804)
Well, it maybe surprising to many human, that human is actually most energy preserving in long distance on feet.

Two feet running allow human to breathe deeper in lung when running, that's how our ancestors hunt huge animals, chase them to exhausted.

Re:It looks like you’re trying to take over the world by Trex_Egg on Sunday March 27, 2022 @10:54AM (#30820682)
That bicycle is result of the aforementioned human intelligence and cooperation.
Re:It looks like you’re trying to take over the world by ganzuul on Sunday March 27, 2022 @11:38AM (#30821065)
I wish to discuss bicycles in terms of cybernetics but I get accused of heterodoxy...