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"For example, I once saw a magpie, upside down on the floor with its legs in the air. " That sounds like it is useful for training flying skills. "Perhaps gro
by lukan 3y ago
"For example, I once saw a magpie, upside down on the floor with its legs in the air. "
That sounds like it is useful for training flying skills.
"Perhaps ground fighting is a useful skill"
If you are chased by birds of prey, I guess any advantage you have in flying is useful. When birds chase them through thick forests, they do have to fly upside down some of the time.
But very likely the bird does not think, "oh I need to train". No, they just have fun doing it. Like kids have fun wrestling. "Fun" is the motivator to do the right thing evolution wise. Our human problem with "fun" is just that we have other metrics for sucess, that are not that fun anymore.
- h0l0cube 3y ago> Our human problem with "fun" is just that we have other metrics for sucess, that are not that fun anymore. Bowerbirds go to great pains to gild their nests. Humans go to great pains to maintain an aura of success, though the vast majority are just trying to survive with whatever they have at their disposal.
- hypertele-Xii 3y agoSurvival is success, and humans are social creatures, maintaining group aura is vital to all social animals' survival success.
- h0l0cube 3y agoI’m not sure if you’re making a counterpoint or not, but this isn’t in contradiction to the notion that all animals including humans are tethered to the joyless daily grind
- hypertele-Xii 3y agoJoyless? Why is your life joyless?
- h0l0cube 3y agoOne could revel in the daily grind, I suppose. But mostly I’m just following the premise of this thread, which may not be entirely true, that modern humans are slaves to contrived parameters of success that don’t align with fun. By way of the bowerbird example, I’m suggesting such contrived and superficial fitness measures are present in the broader animal kingdom as well
- lukan 3y agoI would say there are very different kinds of grind. One that leaves you exhausted, but satisfied with it and one that just leaves you empty. I would say our civilisation is full of the latter and this is not something to be found in the animal kingdom, as it is also not found in human indigenous tribes. Don't get me wrong, there surely is misery and hardship in the "natural" life as well. But a hungry hunter does not have to look for meaning in his work - he knows the meaning is literal food. A modern office job also means food, but way more abstract and disconnected and often requores to do things, we did not optimize fore during evolution.
- h0l0cube 3y agoThe daily grind is specifically of a negative connotation. A fulfilling occupation is the counterpoint to that.