5 ms·
Sapiens is a must read for anyone who wants to better understand the fabrics of humanity. It's one of my most favourite books and reading it definitely has open
by dustinmoris 8y ago
Sapiens is a must read for anyone who wants to better understand the fabrics of humanity. It's one of my most favourite books and reading it definitely has opened up my eyes to the world.
An example:
Humans are the "creators of the world", the most dominant species on the planet and at the top of the food chain by a long distance and yet we are the most jumpy/scary species of all.
If a tiny spider would crawl up the leg of a lion they wouldn't give a bit of a shit. A lion would remain calm, knowing that the spider cannot do anything and it wouldn't even bother to entertain the spider for a split second.
However if the same tiny spider would crawl up the leg of a human there's a real chance that this person would start jumping up and down, perhaps trying to kill the spider or maybe even rush out of the room until the spider is gone.
This is completely irrational for someone like us - the species who literally dominates everything on this planet - and yet so common. Why is that? Because lions had millions of years to climb the ladder to the top of the food chain and therefore had the time to develop a nature which reflects their strength, whereas humans have jumped to the top so quickly that we still have the fears and behaviour of someone who is extremely weak and vulnerable. It's actually quite scary and also explains why humans often respond to tiny issues with violence, bombings and other out of proportion threats when things could just be ignored.
- devmunchies 8y agoI don't agree. I lived in the Caribbean for a while and the longer i was there the less i cared about spiders or flies crawling on my face. If you see other peoples freak out from spiders, you think thats the correct reaction and so you do it.
- gnulinux 8y ago>If a tiny spider would crawl up the leg of a lion they wouldn't give a bit of a shit. A lion would remain calm, knowing that the spider cannot do anything and it wouldn't even bother to entertain the spider for a split second. > However if the same tiny spider would crawl up the leg of a human there's a real chance that this person would start jumping up and down, perhaps trying to kill the spider or maybe even rush out of the room until the spider is gone. I think there is a chance this might be a bad comparison. Do non-human primates not fear spiders? Some interesting read: https://www.psychologicalscience.org/journals/cd/12_1/Ohman.cfm https://www.psychologicalscience.org/journals/cd/12_1/Ohman.... https://psycnet.apa.org/record/2001-07628-001 https://psycnet.apa.org/record/2001-07628-001 https://psycnet.apa.org/record/1985-05872-001 https://psycnet.apa.org/record/1985-05872-001
- tim333 8y agoIn my experience house cats certainly react to tiny spiders but often by eating them.
- gnulinux 8y agoBut cats both naturally evolved to hunt small prey and artificially selected by humans to hunt vermin. They have advantage.
- agumonkey 8y agoYeah the comparison is subpar, I'd bet a dollar that anything that proved hurtful to a lion will make him jump the next time he runs into it by mistake. Animals have fears, we just have different ones.
- jimmy1 8y agoA lion has tougher skin than a human. But the primary difference is knowledge. We as humans know that some small tiny spiders are warrant no amount of fear but some, like the brown recluse, can absolutely mess your day up. A small brown spider is a small brown spider to a lion. On a more higher level, we are aware of our mortality, and this colors our entire experience of almost everything in life, from the biggest things to the littlest things like spiders, which is why all the world's faiths all have something to say about death. I am not sure the lion sits and contemplates his mortality.
- adrianN 8y agoCats are startled by cucumbers. My cat sometimes gets spooked for no apparent reason at all.