SNS: Killing the Killers: A Leading Indicator of Planetary Ecological Destruction

 

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In This Issue Week of 1/2/2017    Vol. 22 Issue 1 FEATURE: Killing the Killers o   The Brain Ladder o   The Role and Meaning of Apex Predators o   Why Should We Care? o   The Problem o   The Solution   Quotes of the Week Takeout Window o    NBC Announces Trumps Selection for Secretary of State o   New startup maps out environmental health risks. Too bad, Seattle. Upgrades o    Russia's Invisible Hand, Part II Ethermail Inside SNS Upcoming SNS Events o   FiRe 2017 o   Where's Mark?

Killing the Killers:
     A Leading Indicator of Planetary Ecological Destruction

There are two top predators on the planet.

But I am already getting ahead of the story.

On land, animals have no requirement for streamlining, as they would in water, which covers three-quarters of the planet. On land, it is possible to build a house, grow food, make roads, have fingers and toes, store things in buildings, write on paper.

In the ocean, you must do the same things, generally, but all in your head: your house is the sea, with no walls; your map and the roads are solely in your brain. There is no agriculture possible, so all your food comes from mapping, memory, and hunting.

On land, you see. Your brain has evolved visually. Underwater, you see almost nothing, so your brain has evolved to use sonar - the echoes of sound - to see=hear the world, "seeing" it through sound.

Mammals who evolved on land are localized, digital, tribal, visual.

Mammals who were on land but returned to the sea live in an oceanwide environment, digit-free, very social, and acoustic.

If you were a Martian coming to Earth for the first time, you might ask:

a.     Who is in charge here? And

b.     Over what? And

c.      Who is the smartest animal on this planet?

While humans are clearly "in charge" on the planet, it turns out that the story is more complicated than that. Humans are the top predators on land, for example, but orcas (killer whales) are the top predators in the sea. And the sea is three-quarters of the planet's surface area.

Because humans evolved on land, we can have things like non-streamlined features (our body shape, fingers and hands, toes and feet). This doesn't mean we are better or smarter; it just means that we are adapted for living on land.

In the water, it's impossible to have non-streamlined features, so there are no fingers, etc. This also means no pianos, chainsaws, hammers, or any of the tools that require fingers to use.

Imagine that.

Does it mean humans are smarter? No, just dry.

Let's step back into the Martian's "shoes" and imagine that this crazy alien wants to understand Earth and its beings solely on their merits.

So, who has the biggest brains on the planet?

Certainly not the land mammals. After all, they have a problem:

While it is clear that biocomputers are the most valuable evolutionary advantage for any animal, the size of land mammals' brains is dictated by body size; on land, this is relatively small. As John C. Lilly proved long ago, if humans had larger brains, their necks would break under the weight.

For too long, goofy anthropocentric apologist scientists have proposed that, for some unknown reason (putting humans on top), we should express overall animal intelligence as brain weight divided by body weight.

Why?

Does it take a lot of brain to run a body?

No.

In fact, the brontosaurus had two small brains, each the size of a walnut. Wow. Clearly, body weight doesn't matter.

So, these Martians might want to know: What are the largest brains, the largest biocomputers, the smartest animals, on Earth?

Almost certainly not us.