People are the most ill-equipped animals(for wilderness survival)

Discussion in 'Biology & Genetics' started by Oniw17, Feb 17, 2009.

  1. Enmos Valued Senior Member

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    I'm not sure how one could interpret the OP in any other way though.
    Needless to say, I have been posting in this thread with this interpretation in mind.

    The smarter man became the less fit (physically) they became. It was somewhat of a feedback loop in my opinion.
     
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  3. Orleander OH JOY!!!! Valued Senior Member

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    I've never killed an animal because I've never had to. But I can field dress just about any animal. I know how to find them. My brothers had a trapping line by the creek and fence line of our property. I could do it if I had to.
    I am NOT a resolute outdoor enthusiast. I hate-detest-can't stand camping. I don't know why people like to pretend they are homeless. But I can do it. My Dad always worried that we might get lost while hunting, so he taught us accordingly. He even told us we could eat our hunting dogs if need be, which horrified us kids. As a parent, I can see it.

    My mother in law knew which plants/roots you could eat. I know a few. I wish I knew more that had a bit of pain reliever in them.

    And I think a lot of us here are selling ourselves short. It would be very rough at first, but I think most of us would survive. Except for Enmos, whose teeth have rotted while he wandered around looking for a grocery store, praying to the PETA gods.
     
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  5. Orleander OH JOY!!!! Valued Senior Member

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    I've always wondered why survivors of small plane crashes in remote areas don't set the plane on fire. They don't even do that on survival shows.
     
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  7. mouse can't sing, can't dance Registered Senior Member

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    If I'd be whisked away from my laptop and dropped in the wilderness, I wouldn't stand a chance. I think the main issue would be time.

    I'll need to feed and drink within a certain period of time, or I'll die. And I'll need to figure out an able defense against predators before they seek me out as prey, or I'll die. There isn't much margin for mistakes either. Eat the wrong bit of food, step on the wrong insect, I might get sick, and with no-one to care for me or hunt for me in my place, I'll probably die.

    Sure, eventually, I will learn how to make elementary tools. But since I'd be alone, I can't learn by example. Rather, I'd have to learn by trial and error. Which takes a lot of time, which I wouldn't have, given my short term, but urgent, needs.
     
  8. Enmos Valued Senior Member

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    Oh haha..

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    What makes you think I would only eat veggies ?
     
  9. ElectricFetus Sanity going, going, gone Valued Senior Member

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    Everyone lives too, its just a matter of how much time.
     
  10. Enmos Valued Senior Member

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    That's what I meant

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  11. ElectricFetus Sanity going, going, gone Valued Senior Member

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    ok ok, you know how I would survive in nature? I would upload my mind into a computer, build a body for my self that could withstand external temperatures from -250C to 250C, atmospheres from 100 Bar to 0 Bar, gravities from 0-2000g, have enough fire power to level a small city, and be powered by some means that allows for decades of service or longer without refueling while providing enough energy on demand to leap building and crush cars with my bare giant grappling claws. Suck on that survivalists! While your trying to survive off of cooked squirrel in your hollowed out log, wearing leaves no less; I'll be worshiped (at least in japans) as some kind of mecha god and I'll walk the whole globe (including the bottom of the sea) finding people and other lower lifeforms who are in need of my awesome services, and than I crush them, because I have nothing better to do.
     
  12. Fraggle Rocker Staff Member

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    Well duh. The less you rely on physical strength and coordination, the less effort you waste on cultivating it. But I don't think there's any evidence to suggest that today's humans are born with inferior physical fitness than our ancestors. Within my own lifetime, the U.S. staffed its war adventures by enforcing involuntary servitude. They drafted some remarkably out-of-shape guys, and turned them into soldiers who could pass the remarkably rigorous tests of basic training. Even today, if you took the average office worker and put him through a serious workout program at a fitness center, after a few months he'd be as sturdy as his Stone Age ancestors. And according to Orly he could also be taught to hunt his own food, although perhaps that requires more coordination and needs to be taught at a younger age.

    But I think the watershed moment will be when the vegetarian movement gains more momentum. I'm a carnivore, yet I love animals and I recognize my own cognitive dissonance in sitting here typing with one in my lap while I just ate a different one for dinner. I think it's clear that the day will come when humans no longer kill animals for food. Perhaps by then we'll have Star Trek replicators that can make tissue that was never part of a living creature, or perhaps we'll be eating textured tofu and taking solace in the fact that chocolate is a vegetable.

    Either way, at that point if the average human were stranded in the wilderness, perhaps he would rather die than commit what he regards as an immoral act: killing another animal to eat it. Unlike Orly's family, I don't think I could bring myself to eat one of my dogs. They're my family and I couldn't live with that memory so there'd be no point in extending my survival. If I killed myself, their scavenger instinct would kick in and they'd eat my corpse, and perhaps it would help them survive until they learned how to hunt squirrels.

    If you want to talk about an animal who's lost his survival skills, it's the wolf population that separated off to become dogs. They're still the same species but a distinctly different subspecies, Canis lupus familiaris. And I'm not talking about a Maltese trying to find the nearest Starbucks; in a couple of generations they'd all hybridize back to the Ancestral Dog standard. But dogs have adapted to be scavengers around human habitation, not hunters or even carrion gleaners. Their brains are smaller than wolf brains so they don't require as much protein, and this decrease in IQ would work against their survivability. Their teeth have changed shape subtly so they're better for chewing up garbage than for ripping the flesh off a dead animal before the larger predators show up to pull rank. And their psychology has become more social; they form larger packs than wolves, which would probably not make for good hunting in today's wilderness.
     
  13. StrangerInAStrangeLand SubQuantum Mechanic Valued Senior Member

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    Whose intelligence? The average person? I don't think so.
    Often people don't find ways to survive.

    No. Humans will not ALWAYS do so.
     
  14. StrangerInAStrangeLand SubQuantum Mechanic Valued Senior Member

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    Let's assume you're correct about you. Let's assume it applies to me. That says nothing about most humans.

    I'd like to see that.

    Maybe so. Most people couldn't.
     
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  15. StrangerInAStrangeLand SubQuantum Mechanic Valued Senior Member

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    lol
     
  16. StrangerInAStrangeLand SubQuantum Mechanic Valued Senior Member

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    A world that could drastically change at any time, which the vast majority of modern humans are not prepared for.

    Tho SOME could pass the test quite naturally.
     
  17. cosmictraveler Be kind to yourself always. Valued Senior Member

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    But in that case, where it is you or Orleander, I'd think she would outlast you.
     
  18. Enmos Valued Senior Member

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    Why do you think so ?
     
  19. cosmictraveler Be kind to yourself always. Valued Senior Member

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    I'd think she could adapt better than you.
     
  20. Enmos Valued Senior Member

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    What do you base that on ?
     
  21. cosmictraveler Be kind to yourself always. Valued Senior Member

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    I'd think she would probably kill you in order for her to survive but you wouldn't do that to her to survive.
     
  22. Enmos Valued Senior Member

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    Oh my..
    You don't know me very well do you ?

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    Anyhow, what do you base that on ?
     
  23. cosmictraveler Be kind to yourself always. Valued Senior Member

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    Reading both of your posts and seeing your answer to certain questions that arose over the years. No , I do not know you, I only base my assumption on what I have read written by you both here.

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