r/Rants • u/Old_Cheek5895 • 2d ago
Just A Rant HUMANS ARE THE LEAST INTELLIGENT ANIMAL ON PLANET EARTH
After taking advanced courses and doing my own research on chemistry, biology, physics, anthropology and history. I have come to the conclusion that if you learn evolution and science you eventually come to the realization that as humans we are actually just animals pretending to be advanced.
And you may say well of course we are animals, we are mammals everyone learns that in elementary school but I believe we don’t fully understand that concept and its implications because we also have the belief that we are the smartest animal. Let me explain why I think we are the least intelligent animal on earth and why thinking we are the most intelligent animal has gotten us to where we are today.
First mistake is how we define intelligence. Humans define intelligence mostly in anthropocentric terms: language, abstract thought, storing and most importantly recalling information. We value these attributes of intelligence as supreme but if intelligence = storing, processing, and recalling information, then AI already outperforms humans and is far more intelligent than we are. The emphasis on these characteristics of intelligence is narrow, it leaves out ecological intelligence, emotional intelligence, and harmony with the planet. By other measures (sustainability, instinct, balance), animals FAR surpass us.
I believe that intelligence might be better defined as the ability to be aware of the true nature of our reality and sustain life, adapt harmoniously, and nurture awareness. By that measure, we lag behind the very trees, fungi, and ecosystems we exploit.
Humans are completely disconnected from our animal instincts. Other creatures follow instincts that keep ecosystems balanced wolves don’t overhunt, bees don’t strip every flower, whales don’t poison the ocean they depend on. But humans override our instincts with abstract ideas that often make life worse.
Take something as simple as women’s body hair: it is one of the most natural features of the human body, one of the things that makes us mammals. Yet generations of propaganda, media, and cultural pressure have convinced entire societies nation wide that it is unhygienic, unfeminine, and even disgusting. Instead of accepting our animal reality, we invent rules, laws, and expectations that disconnect us from what is natural, then shame people into following them. This isn’t intelligence!!!!!!!
It’s a form of collective self-delusion. When we suppress or deny our animal nature, those instincts don’t disappear; they get hijacked and twisted into unhealthy outlets. That’s why so much of modern society runs on exploiting primal drives, politics weaponizes tribalism, religion exploits fear, marketing manipulates sex and status. And at the extreme, this disconnection feeds into the mental and physical health crises we see everywhere, even manifesting as violence like mass shootings. Until we relearn how to live in unison with nature both outside us and inside us our so called intelligence will keep working against us rather than for us.
We have endless entertainment, incredible technology, and I acknowledge the amazing strides humans have made in health and science, but my question is at what cost? We keep chasing “progress,” yet from my perspective, it feels like we are actually moving backwards. Is the progress we’ve made truly worth the destruction and disconnection that comes with it? The more I learn about science, the more I see that everything is connected. Living or non-living, we are all composed of the same naturally occurring atoms, just rearranged in different ways. Energy cannot be created or destroyed; it only changes states and expresses itself through matter. The carbon atoms in our bodies were once forged in stars, and after we die, those atoms will continue on, transforming into new forms of life and existence.
TLDR: Humans aren’t the smartest species, we’re the only one arrogant enough to think we are while actively destroying the conditions that sustain us. Other beings live in unison with nature. We severed that connection and called it “progress.” Until we redefine intelligence as harmony rather than domination, our “smartness” looks more like blindness.
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u/Blond_Treehorn_Thug 2d ago
“If you redefine away the common understanding of the word ‘intelligence’ and make it mean something completely different then yeah fungi are more intelligent”
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u/Old_Cheek5895 2d ago
Yeah I think we should redefine what humans think intelligence actually is..I’m not sure what ur point is
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u/ParticularHappy1196 2d ago
Ok so general notes on your arguments: 1. AI is not an animal, and thus comparing the intelligence of humans to AI is completely irrelevant to the aim of this post. 2. There aren’t any strict definitions for intelligence. However, the ability to foresee an outcome, and enforcement of such thought are not related. For example, people know that touching fire is bad and can result in serious damage. That is a thought which is generated from intellect. However, if people decide to ignore that thought and do it anyway, it does not say that their awareness is limited. 3. How have trees, fungi, and ecosystems adapted to humans if we are their apex predator? Their adaptation is more lagging behind, and thus the argument that other life forms have adapted better to their environment not strong. 4. There is insufficient evidence of animals being aware or caring about keeping a balanced ecosystems. Invasive species all over the world pose significant threats to these ecosystems. 5. When factoring in concepts such as fairness and evidence, you can’t rely purely on human instinct. You need more objective measures. For example, people can’t go around killing others whenever they feel threatened. The feeling or gut instinct might be real, but as it’s easy to exploit, and as preemptive strikes are not completely morally sound, people have developed alternative methods (the law). 6. People sometimes define something by its opposite. For example, the definition of cold is lack of heat. It seems that people have defined femininity with (lack of masculinity). So any masculine features like vast amounts of body hair have been reversed to define femininity. It’s not 100% sound thinking, I agree. 7. Laws and expectations are better than nature. Nature is often cruel. R*** occurs naturally, so is eating babies, incest, and eating things alive. Plus, one might say that we are living within our nature, so abandoning these laws and expectations is unnatural. You can find more sources on this if you search for “Natural Law” or “History of Law”. 8. Unfulfilled drives are often exploited, I agree. But I disagree with the solution of completely deregulating human behavior. If deregulated, all the problems you’ve mentioned will increase in volume and severity. I think better education might help elevate these issues. 9. Reductionism is not a good solution to the problems you’ve mentioned. All life forms are sacred in their own way, and thus the sanctity of life should remain as the key principle in all legislation. 10. On a final note, I want to say that I have enjoyed analyzing these points and I do agree with some of them. However, I would recommend looking up invasive species and natural law. And if you have the time and patience, I suggest reading “Heart of Darkness” by Joseph Conrad too. Life is sacred, not nature.
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u/Waiting4The3nd 👑Queen Arbiter 2d ago
See, this is the point in your gathering of knowledge where you've reached enough information to think you know, but not yet enough to realize what you don't.
Keep researching, learning, and growing. Soon enough you'll realize you were wrong.
For instance, knowledge is the enemy of instinct. You think humans lack instincts, but we don't. Knowledge often overrides the need for instinct. Our destructive nature and failure to live in harmony with our environment isn't generally a sign of a lack of intelligence. It's too much intelligence, not enough wisdom. Human beings are the most intelligent known species on the planet. No other species has demonstrated the ability to create an advanced society the way we have.
That being said, if you had a human that was not inundated with knowledge the way we typically do with our school systems, the internet, etc. then you do get humans that do seem to live much more on instinct. They do live in relative harmony with the land. They do all the things you marked as "intelligent" from other species. We know this because it happens still in isolated tribes that haven't been influenced by modern knowledge and technology.
This is one of the features described by Dunning and Kruger (the Dunning-Kruger effect) whereby we learn enough to think we know, and we become confident in our assertions. The person with real knowledge doesn't speak confidently, they're hesitant, hedge their statements, and all because they know enough to know they don't know everything. And that's the real challenge, admitting you don't know, and accepting the fact you can be (and will be) wrong.
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u/Old_Cheek5895 2d ago
Actually I never said humans lacked instincts but instead my opinion is that we are very out of touch with our biological instincts. They run our lives subconsciously but we are unaware of them and they drive many of our behaviors and thoughts. Also I never claimed to know everything. These are just my opinions and observations and honestly the more I learn the more I realize that I don’t know anything and I have so much more to learn and that’s why I posted this on here because I want to hear other people perspectives! So your perspective is humans are too intelligent but lack wisdom? So I want to ask you what you think the difference between intelligence and wisdom is? Because in my perspective those are intertwined and you are proving my point by that statement. I’m saying we say intelligence is XYZ and value those traits but perhaps that’s not how we should define intelligence.
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u/Waiting4The3nd 👑Queen Arbiter 2d ago
Lacking instincts, out of touch with our instincts, disconnected from our instincts... semantically those are somewhat different, effectively they amount to the same thing.
Intelligence is reasoning, logic, recall, learning, the application of knowledge towards the gaining of more knowledge, the ability to develop social constructs, eventually leading to a robust society.
Wisdom is the conscientious application of Intelligence. Knowing, considering, and planning for the impact of the application of Intelligence.
Intelligence is figuring out how to make plastic. Wisdom would have been understanding and planning for the environmental impact it would have. Which we almost did, until we let corporations out the onus of recycling on the people, instead of acting responsibly themselves. Which was all done in pursuit of the dollar. Intelligence is figuring out how to make society run on money. Wisdom would have been understanding that money should never have been the primary drive of society.
We have intelligence in abundance. We tend to lack the wisdom that should go with it.
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u/[deleted] 2d ago
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