Do you believe humanity is out of control?

Because were wayyyyyyyy more intelligent, wayyyyyyyyy more sophisticated and interact with eachother wayyyyyyyyyy more. Maybe that's why chief. Similar to animals in many ways, yes, but in a class of our own none the less.

You're not wrong. We have good days and bad ones. That said, it's very uncommon to see a gold digger apologise for their actions or put their money toward charity. I never hear of a bully providing after school care to orphans you know? Some people are simply scum. It's human to fall every now and again, what's not is to fail to learn from mistakes and improve.

Society likes to view itself as an evolved, mature being. If we were as evolved as they like to believe, then we wouldn't be held back be ideologies we made ourselves. Wars over religion, political views and economics is a foolish waste of life and resources/money that could be directed toward the poverty stricken. So much could be done in the world if we were capable of accepting that we're fucked up, flawed and in need of a rude awakening. What differentiates us from animals is the ability to realise our faults and improve upon them to be better. Something which many people lack.

You're right, we're not all evil, nor all good. As someone previously said, "Some days I'm a nice person, others I'm a bitch". What truly distinguishes a good person from a bad one is (in my eyes) two things.

1. The inability to see/accept their wrongdoings or misdeeds and/or refusal to improve them self
2. A willingness to continue down a path that benefits them-self knowing it's at the detriment of others

These two factors are what make someone truly a failure of our species.

Of course animals can understand abstract concepts. Chimps are able to learn sign language beyond mimicking. Dogs are able to learn click languages etc. I have taught my dogs the difference between which toys are theirs and those they should leave alone. All require cognitive reasoning.

You're right. To some degree kindness is born from suffering. I often find those in poorer countries are much more likely to give what little they have than that of a person who's never felt true hardships.

A sad but likely true statement indeed.

I like this. I think it sums us up pretty well.

It'd be wonderful if such statistics were accurate. Sadly I've struggled to find nearly as many decent/kind folk than that of selfish ones. You couldn't be more right in regards to decent people wishing to live a simple life whilst the selfish often take positions of power. It's that small portion of good people that shine a hopeful light on my otherwise despairing outlook for our species

The old 'accept and adapt to survive' method huh? Unfortunately I find myself incapable of looking the other way. I seek to change things, even if only slightly. I'll use what energy I have and my sole voice to spread kindness to the hearts of as many as possible.

I absolutely think certain criminals should be eliminated. They put down and animals. Not every violent crime but people who are just repeatedly dangerous can get off this planet.

I couldn't agree with you more.

Neurons are actually the basis of my argument but it's important to remember that the wiring thereof is more important than the count. After all, elephants have roughly three times as many neurons as humans have. We have to consider the cortical neurons, neuronal-packing density, interneuronal distance, and axonal conduction velocity in all animals we wish to compare.

It's an imperfect science, but all things considered, humans seem to possess only about three times the overall processing potential of chimps and they don't even invariably outperform them in all cognitive tests, many of which measure traits classically thought of as markers of human intelligence. For example, chimps have been trained to memorize the positions of the numbers one through nine on a display and then tap the positions of the numbers in the correct sequence after they disappear. Humans generally require at least five seconds to do this while chimps appear to find it rather effortless. One chimp can perform this task with only 210 milliseconds to commit the positions to memory and has never been defeated by a human, including a British memory champion.

All the same, there's no doubt that humans are the most intelligent animal on the planet overall and consequently responsible for it. I was only relating to the feeling that humans aren't exactly objectively as much of an outlier as they appear from a subjective perspective. Despite appearances, the lead is of a multiplicative nature, nearly an additive one, rather than an exponential one. Exploring the still-subjective (for the extraterrestrial) perspective of an observing extraterrestrial intelligence was only meant to serve as a catalyst for objective thinking on the matter.

Thank you! I'm happy to be back.

My friend you couldn't be farther from the truth but your theories did make me smile :) . If you're wondering what drives me it's years of attention to detail regarding human behaviour and historical events. I studied history throughout ancient, medieval and modern. I dabbled in psychology and came to the conclusion that a significant portion of our species follow the same patterns. Lying for personal gain, killing for ones beliefs/emotions, keeping historical records of what we've done whilst turning our backs on it by saying it was "necessary".

I pay attention to every post someone makes on here out of pure interest in whether like-minded individuals visited this site and had thoughts of their own to weigh in. Also possibly express my ideology to the uneducated on the matter of human behaviour.

Lastly, games of chance are not something I endulge in when my money can go toward more useful purposes. And please do hold onto that twenty dollars, you may cross someone in need :) .

An alpha is ranked by the success of their pack. In nature the ability to provide for the family or community is the greatest achievement of them all.

What’s a king without a thriving kingdom?

Being alone and self reserved is as beta as it gets comrade

Donate all your stuff to an orphanage? I doubt they are old enough for some of your "personal" belongings, although the nuns could probably use them. Can you imagine hearing the nuns, in a moment of ecstasy, praising "OH MY FUCKING GOD! YES YES YES".

You know though, people like the OP who call for "selfless giving" are often the biggest crooks out there. Like the kind of people who run charities that are "non profit" Bowlshit.

You're absolutely right, people don't HAVE to dedicate themselves to the betterment of society. It's nice when they do though. Without people looking out for one another you just have impulsive beasts trying to climb to the top of social and/or corporate ladders as a means of being "top dog". It'd be a lovely thing if people were able to mind their own business and don't take advantage of others. Sadly a significant portion of humanity does so without remorse. The idea of every man for themself, trying to survive for yourself, thinking of yourself as number 1 top priority. That's the frame of mind which creates these atrocious excuses for human beings.

There's a difference between Succumbing to ones urges and indulging them. Eating to survive, that's fair enough. A desire to survive, that's fair enough. You're indulging your urges. When you succumb to them you'd happily choose to feed yourself when you're already full just because it's tasty. Even if there was a starving child outside you'd think nothing of it and continue on with your day. That frame of mind is what I wish to abolish from our species.