Nature shows are excellent. Have you ever seen Planet Earth? If not, stop reading this and watch it now, because it is way better than this post. I’ll wait……

See it? Pretty good, huh? Animals are fantastic and amazingly different from each other. It really shows us many different ways life can exist and survive in many different environments.

But they are not as smart as humans.

It is so annoying to hear animal experts refer to these creatures as incredibly intelligent with complex family structures, a language, and deep emotions. I mean this is maybe all true , but there is this implication that in some ways these animals are on par, if not superior to, with humans in some facet.

No way. C’mon now. It is not even close. I mean it is ok to be impressed with a animal, but it is like being proud of a 5 year old who can tie their own shoe; expectations are low to begin with and hell, I can do that.

Humans dominate the world like no other animal in the history of Earth. Granted, it hasn’t been as long as the dinosaurs, but our level of dominance is so great, I say FIE to the thunder lizards of years past.

Today, they BBC has an article about the octopus and why they are the geniuses of the ocean.

Click here to read, it is actually pretty good

Now I get that our 8 legged friend has a tremendous brain that spans the entire body, and that their ability to change to their surroundings is awesome, but genius? If they were so smart, why do they only live for 5 years? Where is their medical care? I mean blending in the environment is great, but a well constructed mask can make me walk through my work unnoticed.

I saw a documentary the other night, Blackfish. It is about the mistreatment of Shamu et al at SeaWorld. IT is very ggod. But they say in the film that their brain has an emotional section that is as complex as humans. Pish posh! If they were sooo sophisticated and wanted to maintain their family unit, why haven’t they figured out the net=loss-of-calf equation yet?

From our ability to farm and sustain a food source to our curiousity of the world around up to the technology we create to learn about the universe to inventing breakfast burritos, humans are so much more advanced and complicated than the second most (which is probably an owl due to their academic CV), it is like if Gary Kasparov played chess vs my dog. I don’t think my dog even knows the rules of chess!!

The point is we sometimes forget how unique and strangely foreign we are to every other animal that ever existed. It is like we are aliens on our own turf. It is very odd and thought-provoking; our own bizarre existance. We are truly special and enlightened ‘animals’. I can go on even more about this (more to come in later posts), but I’ll end it with this thought….

Ever see a dolphin build a rocket to go to the moon?

I rest my case.