this post was submitted on 19 Sep 2023
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I'd agree, but cats are also too dumb to do anything Else except hunt, shit and sleep. I know we are all on the 'humans are trash' train rn, but we are still exponentially more intelligent than anything else around us.
Our advantages come down to incremental improvement. Thog takes a rock and splits it into sharp af edges and now hes got a hand axe. Ogg takes another rock, splits it into sharp bits (or not) and uses sinue or twine to attach it to a stick. now they could have a number of different tools. Nog figures out they can tan hide using astringent plants they soaked and exposed the hide to and now theyve got primitive clothing. But most people... would struggle if they had to survive without all that technology. Cats... can survive off hunting birds and rodents. They do such a good job of it that theyve wiped out the 2nd most species on the planet aside from us. And keep in mind these are housecats not wild cats or strays. Itd be like some dude living in suburbia going to the mountains and killing everything with his bare hands or whatever tools he could cobble together from the materials he found there. Most people... would probably die of exposure, starvation or wild animals like bears and mountain lions if they tried that. We do as well as we do despite this because we improve generation after generation. Thats it. That's our advantage.
Kinda and not really, simultaneously. We are good at adapting and we have a really high ceiling intelligence-wise (at least compared to other species). Cats will never have the capability for building houses, cars or space shuttles. They just don't have the capacity. Neither do birds, fish or any other species, except us.
It's kinda ridiculous to tell yourself that's not true, just look around yourself. We might still be dumb apes after all, but still we are a million times smarter than a cat or an eagle. If we wanted, we could wipe out all life on the planet, and there is nothing any animal could do about it. It's cruel and I obviously don't want that, but it's the truth.
The point is that being able to hunt isnt as easy or brainless as its made out to be. Not that we humans arent intelligent
Yes, we know hunting isn't easy. But there are a lot of predators that are highly proficient at it. No other species does what we do.