We humanoids think we are at the top of the evolutionary chain and superior to other critters.
Is that true?
Hmm!
Let's start with the brain.
Largest Brain: Sperm Whale
Well, we can handle that. What about the ratio of brain size to body size.
Largest Brain for Body Size: Hummingbird
Mass doesn't mean much as far as the brain goes. A whale has tons of blubber that require little brain action. A giant dinosaur had a brain the size of a walnut.
Speech Complexity: No race here. The whales have millions of bits of information in their speech. Human brains are evidently too small to totally decipher the language of dolphins, porpoises, whales, and other creatures. We are good at making up new languages such as Chinese and the computer languages.
Ability to Reason:
Now this is our big advantage, right?
Probably.
Some of us can solve the Rubik's Cube and make nuclear bombs, fighter jets, rockets, computers, cell phones, and hula hoops, etc. I haven't see animals doing this yet. We write stuff like Taylor Jones the Hack Writer is writing right here too. Other animals don't spend much time in these activities, at least outside the brain. Our reasoning activities lead to war and evil and, at the same time, religion.
Largest Animal: We lose. The Blue Whale gets the Blue Ribbon.
Fastest Animal: We are slowpokes. It's good we keep most animals out of the Olympics.
We know God: Animals don't seem to know about God. We think that we do. But do we? It depends whom you ask.
Nudity: We are obsessed with nudity. We like to hide it on an everyday basis and reveal it in pornography. A Zulu king said that the social problem was clothing, not nudity. It really get silly. Naked primitive people who don't know they are nude, are shielded by blurred circles covering their private parts when we see them on television but we can watch a movie of humans copulating on the kitchen table. Animals don't care about nudity.
Profanity: Only we use it as far as I know. I wonder about pit bulls, chimps, and baboons.
It's true that humans have a remarkable brain but we are not the only ones with marvelous brains. We piddle around on land. Water animals need special functions for their environment. Is the brain of a human any more remarkable than that of a porpoise?
Flying: We can't. But we can build airplanes, lighter-than-air craft like balloons, and rockets that once took a few of us to No Name Moon. Arctic terns fly from pole to pole.
Swimming: Some few of us can swim the English Channel if we coat ourselves with grease and have a rowboat for safety. Whales routinely swim for thousands of miles. We have submarines that swim like whales and carry horrific atomic rockets which they launch while submerged. We have scuba gear to spend some time in the shallower depths of the ocean.
Eyesight: Eagles have the best eyesight. We have spy satellites. The Hubble telescope is a wonder of wonder letting us peer into the cosmos.
Odor Detection: We use dogs to find drugs and lost people, etc. Sharks and honey bees are very good at this too. But we do have smoke detectors. How's the battery in yours?
Hearing: Human hearing range is narrower than many animals. That's why your dog howls when you sing. Even a cow has a wider hearing range than a human, as do most all other animals. But we humans can pick up sounds outside our hearing range with microphones and amplify them with our electronic instrumentation.
So what is the bottom line? It's in a song: Anything you can do I can do better.
It goes like this:
Anything you can do,
I can do better.
I can do anything
Better than you.
See all of the lyrics at: http://www.stlyrics.com/lyrics/anniegetyourgun/anythingyoucando.htm
That is our race with the animals we share this world with. Unfortunately, they don't seem to know they are in the race. Now, if we can actually become civilized and concentrate on preserving this planet and all of its creatures rather than just talking about it.
The End
copyright©2007 John T. Jones, Ph.D. (Taylor Jones the Hack Writer)
Odor DetectJohn T. Jones, Ph.D. (tjbooks@hotmail.com), a retired college professor and business executive, Former editor of an international engineering magazine. To learn more about Wealthy Affiliate University go to his info site. If you desire a flagpole to Fly Old Glory, go to the business site.
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