The human superpowers are basically throwing fastballs and jogging in hot weather. The ancestral hunting strategy is basically to throw stuff at the animals to get them to run, then jog after them. Repeat until the animal is too tired to move.
But that’s not it. We’ve also got the social aspect that brought us, as a species, to the apex to be able to hunt animals that could kill us easily individually, some of us have the balls to dominate those animals even alone, and the intelligence to develop novel tools to increase our capabilities and effective cross-generational communication to enable iterating these tools over many lifespans.
Through this, humans or our descendants might one day hunt apex predators on other planets that maybe are better joggers and throwers than we are.
There are still humans who do this to this day, the most notable being the tarahumara tribes of South America. They will literally run down the local deer barefoot for their food.
Humans are insanely adapted to be endurance runners compared with the rest of the animal kingdom which, if you think about it, kind of makes sense. It takes a LOT less energy for a cheetah to sprint down an antelope in 3 minutes than to chase it for 3 hours, so they adapted to be great sprinters. Likewise, the antelope only has to outrun the cheetah for 3 minutes so they, too, became great sprinters. For small mammals it makes more sense to be able to run very fast and hide from predators than to run long distances in potentially dangerous territory.
Since there was no evolutionary incentive for animals to run marathons they never developed the biology to do so, and we see this not just in mammals, but in reptiles, too. Horses are an exception to this though as they, too, are well adapted to distance running although iirc their adaptations are more in the way of making it mechanically easy (long, strong legs, huge hearts, etc.) to run long distances rather than the cooling systems humans developed.
Humans just kind of lucked out or perhaps ended up filling an evolutionary niche due to our need to cover long ranges with scarce food sources in our early evolutionary development.
The humans running down animals for hours also feel like that after a bit fyi. They are just hungry enough to keep running.
I have some friends who are into serious long distance running and they are constantly in a state of suffering while running. It’s the feeling of stopping running that makes them keep wanting to go running, not the feeling of the actual running.
That’s purely endorphin addiction, in the 80’s I had (for a short time till he got re-homed) a boss that was a true asshole motherfucking sonofabitch if he didn’t get his 6 miles in before he headed to work.
And yes, that IS how I got him fired removed, an emergency meeting between my department (which had to include him, the department head) over a virus infection (mid 1980s mind you) got him to be said “asshole motherfucking sonofabitch” to the C** people in the meeting.
The fact that he had been “promoted” from head of QC to head of a 1980’s IT department and had once said in front of the entire department that he wanted to throw every PC in the company into the company pond had “nothing” to do with it. >
Actually it’s because we have sweat glands all over our bodies, which I think is unique among animals. Dog, for example, can only dump excess heat by heavier panting, whereas humans will just sweat more.
Some of us have more and more puissant sweat glands than others.
Additionally being bipedal means that as we run our breathing rate is separate from our gait. As four legged animals gallop the motion of their running expands and contracts their diaphragm, forcing them to breath at the same rate they run at.
Since they can’t sweat like us, or breath like us, they have to stop running and start panting in order to cool down.
While humans can just keep going, relentlessly, like the It Follows monster.
Haha, sorry! I didn’t share because as of now there is only the one post (about this word). Plus, I’m honestly unsure the best way to link a community so people can easily access it.
for people who just learned a neat word and might want to share it. Truthfully, I don’t super expect it to grow to be more than just me posting in there, but I think it would be a fun way to keep track of fun words I learn and a better way to learn words than a word of the day calendar. The lack of seeing words in use on those drives me nuts, cause the sample sentences are usually boring af.
The human superpowers are basically throwing fastballs and jogging in hot weather. The ancestral hunting strategy is basically to throw stuff at the animals to get them to run, then jog after them. Repeat until the animal is too tired to move.
But that’s not it. We’ve also got the social aspect that brought us, as a species, to the apex to be able to hunt animals that could kill us easily individually, some of us have the balls to dominate those animals even alone, and the intelligence to develop novel tools to increase our capabilities and effective cross-generational communication to enable iterating these tools over many lifespans.
Through this, humans or our descendants might one day hunt apex predators on other planets that maybe are better joggers and throwers than we are.
Fuck that, seems like too much work. I’ll just order a pizza… /s
And finding reasons why that important thing can wait until tomorrow, even though that thing is pretty easy to do
There are still humans who do this to this day, the most notable being the tarahumara tribes of South America. They will literally run down the local deer barefoot for their food.
Humans are insanely adapted to be endurance runners compared with the rest of the animal kingdom which, if you think about it, kind of makes sense. It takes a LOT less energy for a cheetah to sprint down an antelope in 3 minutes than to chase it for 3 hours, so they adapted to be great sprinters. Likewise, the antelope only has to outrun the cheetah for 3 minutes so they, too, became great sprinters. For small mammals it makes more sense to be able to run very fast and hide from predators than to run long distances in potentially dangerous territory.
Since there was no evolutionary incentive for animals to run marathons they never developed the biology to do so, and we see this not just in mammals, but in reptiles, too. Horses are an exception to this though as they, too, are well adapted to distance running although iirc their adaptations are more in the way of making it mechanically easy (long, strong legs, huge hearts, etc.) to run long distances rather than the cooling systems humans developed.
Humans just kind of lucked out or perhaps ended up filling an evolutionary niche due to our need to cover long ranges with scarce food sources in our early evolutionary development.
And here I am, a couch potato that can barely jog for over 90 seconds before feeling like i’m going to die.
The humans running down animals for hours also feel like that after a bit fyi. They are just hungry enough to keep running.
I have some friends who are into serious long distance running and they are constantly in a state of suffering while running. It’s the feeling of stopping running that makes them keep wanting to go running, not the feeling of the actual running.
That’s purely endorphin addiction, in the 80’s I had (for a short time till he got re-homed) a boss that was a true asshole motherfucking sonofabitch if he didn’t get his 6 miles in before he headed to work.
And yes, that IS how I got him
firedremoved, an emergency meeting between my department (which had to include him, the department head) over a virus infection (mid 1980s mind you) got him to be said “asshole motherfucking sonofabitch” to the C** people in the meeting.The fact that he had been “promoted” from head of QC to head of a 1980’s IT department and had once said in front of the entire department that he wanted to throw every PC in the company into the company pond had “nothing” to do with it. >
I think the only reason we can keep running in hot weather (better than other animals) is because we’re resourceful enough to carry water
Actually it’s because we have sweat glands all over our bodies, which I think is unique among animals. Dog, for example, can only dump excess heat by heavier panting, whereas humans will just sweat more.
Some of us have more and more puissant sweat glands than others.
Additionally being bipedal means that as we run our breathing rate is separate from our gait. As four legged animals gallop the motion of their running expands and contracts their diaphragm, forcing them to breath at the same rate they run at.
Since they can’t sweat like us, or breath like us, they have to stop running and start panting in order to cool down.
While humans can just keep going, relentlessly, like the It Follows monster.
You just taught me a new word! Puissant!
The word was so fun I decided to make a new community where people can share fun words they just learned. Thank you!
So what’s the community? Don’t leave us hanging…
Haha, sorry! I didn’t share because as of now there is only the one post (about this word). Plus, I’m honestly unsure the best way to link a community so people can easily access it.
That said, it is ILearnedAWord
https://ttrpg.network/c/ilearnedaword
for people who just learned a neat word and might want to share it. Truthfully, I don’t super expect it to grow to be more than just me posting in there, but I think it would be a fun way to keep track of fun words I learn and a better way to learn words than a word of the day calendar. The lack of seeing words in use on those drives me nuts, cause the sample sentences are usually boring af.
Subscribed!
It should be a community devoted to high-brow Yo Mama jokes, e.g., “Yo mama has puissant sweat glands!”