Ants... and human flaws

from GalCiv2 Forums
Thalans are buglike, which reminded me of ants.

Ants are very organized, and can accomplish amazing things for beings their size.
How? they work as one, they have an amazing assortment of predators, yet still manage to get into my house every spring. How? They ALL work towards the better of their "colony", never would one not sacrifice itself for the better of the colony.

Humans, seem to be almost exactly the opposite, thinking only for ones self by instinct.
As someone said on another thread, people will put their own pleasure as a higher priority than another persons needs. Even I'm guilty of this, like hogging the computer so my brother can't use it, or simply forgeting to feed the dog.

There are very, very, rich people who could spend loads of money to better the economy of the world and make this planet a better place, but they don't. Why? does self centered ring a bell? Yes, they do give donatoins to charities sometimes, but, I think those are just publicity stunts, I hear the self centered bell again.  

bad joke....

anyway, I may be getting off topic here...

I guess I'm trying to say that people are flawed simply by having the ability of, not caring about others.... of putting themselves in front of the needs of others.
off-topic
15,569 views 10 replies
Reply #1 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Yes, it would be nice if we were hard-wired just a bit differently.
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Reply #3 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
It's always about the *richest* man in the world. Why not have a award for the poorest amn in the world?
Reply #4 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
We aren't hard-wired, that's our advantage over ants
Reply #5 from GalCiv2 Forums Top

It's always about the *richest* man in the world. Why not have a award for the poorest amn in the world?


Becasue there would be quite a few tied for the honor...
Reply #6 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Humans, seem to be almost exactly the opposite, thinking only for ones self by instinct.

Although this seems to be the case for many people, in many other cases this is certainly not true. Just think of the soldiers walking into German machinegun fire at the Somme or storming the Normandy beaches.

But did these soldiers consciously and willingly put themselves in these life-threatening situations defending the freedom of others or.. are mechanisms at work that resemble the organization of ant hives at a higher level. In other words, how much of our behaviour is controlled by group organization processes often unrecognized by us, thinking our behaviour is determined by conscious thought and free will.

Anyway, I don't agree with the idea of a 'flawed' humanity implied here. I would say the human race has three abilities that make it the rightful ruler of this planet.

1. Unsurpassed flexibility in handling situations provided by our superior brains compared to any other animal.
2. The tried and tested survival of the fittest mentality, the average human strives to be better than the last one, his peers, himself on a previous occasion, etc. Some nasty side effects are selfishness, hate, wars, etc, but as individuals and groups we continuously try to improve ourselves.
3. We are the masters of organization. Even though many of our goals are for our own feelings of accomplishment (even altruistic ones, some might say), no one can deny our ability to work together, put strength in numbers and specialize to optimize our efficiency. A very important aspect of our being is wanting to be part of a group, making the group succesful etc.

Disclaimers:
1. This is all talk about humans inhabiting the earth as seen from a very large distance. Abilities may not apply to particular individuals or situations. Also, personality is an important biological trait, meaning that different people perform different roles in the population.
2. Even though we are able to perform 'wonders' of engineering and production, let's call this energy-transformation, we are also masters of energy waste and misuse in all forms imaginable.
3. The mentioned abilities may lead to the destruction of human civilization by overloading our habitat, nuclear holocaust or excessive playing of GalCiv II.

My opinion is that even though humanity is not perfect, the basic 'design' is pretty good and humans are not inferior to ants.
Reply #7 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Ants don't have the capacity to be self centered. They don't have the capacity to "have fun". They only have the capacity to search for food for the colony, defend the colony, and do strictly what is coded in their DNA. One section of our brain's visual cortex is larger than several ants. I would have to believe, though, that neurons are roughly the same size. The difference being that an ant maybe has hundreds of thousands of neurons and we have trillions of neurons. To me, this is like arguing that water just flows down a hill, where as people wouldn't just "flow down a hill" (because of fear of injury and death). The water doesn't know any better and just flows down the hill because it has 0 neurons.
Reply #8 from GalCiv2 Forums Top

There are very, very, rich people who could spend loads of money to better the economy of the world and make this planet a better place, but they don't. Why? does self centered ring a bell? Yes, they do give donatoins to charities sometimes, but, I think those are just publicity stunts, I hear the self centered bell again.  


And yet the best way to get business contacts is to join a local service organisation.
Reply #9 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
It costs more to make these kinds of sweeping economical changes than most people realize. Even the wealthiest people in the world cannot afford to end poverty. And it's not just about money; poverty and hunger are related to broad political and social issues that can't be bought away. Not to mention the logistical headaches that always pop up. That's why philanthropy tends not to be so radical, imo.
Reply #10 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
It's always about the *richest* man in the world. Why not have a award for the poorest amn in the world?


Becasue there would be quite a few tied for the honor...


Interestingly enough, with our credit card economy, it's entirely possible to have a balance of well below zero. In fact, collecting interest and fees off of people who are in debt is a major source of income for credit card companies.

And oh, yeah, college kids easily qualify as well with the cost of education these days. With my college loans, I'm probably worth -$20000 . . .