If All Humans Died Suddenly, Who Would Rule the Earth?
63 replies, posted
Who would be the next "King"? Would some sort of animal evolve into something great?
I'm not a master of biology or evolution, but when this question accured in my head, my mind lead to apes.
Since they already have a basic intelligence and tools that could help them contruct or fight, that assumption seemed suitable.
For example they can use twigs to fish for items or ants. Imagine what else they could learn and do with enough time.
Also toolmaking was considered to be a "human" thing only, which states that they are quite smart and capable.
So, who would rule the earth?
Nobody rules the Earth. Humans just have a bit of a monopoly. Look at the ocean for a place where we don't.
the apes
aliens
Dogs.
It's either cats or dogs, but I think dogs have an advantage because they form packs.
Nature.
The Narwhals. They'd evolve into land narwhals (or unicorns, if you will) and spear everything.
blobfish
Ant- a common insect that forms a collective super-organism with members of her colony to accomplish tasks that would otherwise be impossible for them.
Lions because The Lion King
This thread implies, we(humans) rule the earth
first, that is wrong.
"If All Humans Died Suddenly"
nuclear reactors would go into meltdown along with every other type of reactor that needs humans to man them releasing harmful radiation or at the very least a large fire not to mention all the trillions of other things that would slowly break down and release harmful toxins or any amount of other harmful stuff (oil tankers come to mind - which would then posion the seas killing the fish wiping out entire eco systems effecting other food chains etc. etc.)
and then everything would be reclaimed by nature.
Nature will just take it's own course with the planet, whether our cities still stand if we disappear, then the animal kingdom would possibly take them for themselves.
[QUOTE=_Maverick_;36750701]This thread implies, we(humans) rule the earth
first, that is wrong.
"If All Humans Died Suddenly"
nuclear reactors would go into meltdown along with every other type of reactor that needs humans to man them releasing harmful radiation or at the very least a large fire not to mention all the trillions of other things that would slowly break down and release harmful toxins or any amount of other harmful stuff (oil tankers come to mind - which would then posion the seas killing the fish wiping out entire eco systems effecting other food chains etc. etc.)
and then everything would be reclaimed by nature.[/QUOTE]
You realize that nuclear reactors have safeguards against this kind of thing, right? They automatically shut down when things might start to get out of hand. Nuclear energy isn't handled by a bunch of five year olds.
That said, the radioactive material would remain on-site, and the rest of what you said is true.
[QUOTE=ElectricSquid;36750781]You realize that nuclear reactors have safeguards against this kind of thing, right? They automatically shut down when things might start to get out of hand. Nuclear energy isn't handled by a bunch of five year olds.
That said, the radioactive material would remain on-site, and the rest of what you said is true.[/QUOTE]
biggest/most dangerous thing i could think of.
i'm sure other fossil fuel reactors have safe guards as well but those surly can't last forever
life after people documentary
Define "rule"
if we have robots/androids in our society, they will probably take after us.
[QUOTE=shackleford;36750929]if we have robots/androids in our society, they will probably take after us.[/QUOTE]
We don't have robots/androids with sentience or human level of learning though.
Insects!
[QUOTE=shackleford;36750929]if we have robots/androids in our society, they will probably take after us.[/QUOTE]
It seems like there's always some absurd idea of sentient robots that will become rulers when the humans all die or whatever.
What has a robot possibly got to gain with ruling over the world? Humans do it to survive, thrive, have fun etc, but we'd need some pretty impressive engineering to make the robots feel what a human does.
Dolphins and killer whales have quite high intelligence for animals as far as I know, they can rule the ocean if they want.
It's been shown that ravens also know how to use tools. Well, some anyway. In a test, a bunch of ravens had to pick up a stick with their beaks to pick up another stick, which they had to use to collect a piece of meat that was unreachable with the first stick. I think 50% or so managed to get the meat. However they don't have hands, something apes do. I think that's mainly the reason why we 'rule' the planet, just because we can touch our pinkies with our thumbs.
Sobotnik
[sp]get it[/sp]
I think the plant life would start ruling, because I could imagine large cities like New York being overgrown with plants. Hell, plants and flora rules the earth even today, because none of the other species would even manage without them. At least that's what I think.
[QUOTE=Kommodore;36750999]Sobotnik[/QUOTE]
I don't think a fat creature will be able to dominate earth
[editline]13th July 2012[/editline]
[QUOTE=Gears of duty;36751011]I think the plant life would start ruling, because I could imagine large cities like New York being overgrown with plants. Hell, plants and flora rules the earth even today, because none of the other species would even manage without them. At least that's what I think.[/QUOTE]
Sometimes I wonder if plants are really sentient and aware
[QUOTE=Recurracy;36751033]I don't think a fat creature will be able to dominate earth
[editline]13th July 2012[/editline]
Sometimes I wonder if plants are really sentient and aware[/QUOTE]
didn't you read that article on fp a while ago that plants will grow towards other plants, they call for help and warn others about danger, their smart.
[tab]too smart..[/tab]
No one would rule it, the animals would fall into more natural cycles and nature would balance itself out as much as it can. If anything, the plants would rule the Earth, they'd completely overtake all of our structures and remove sign of human life.
The gorillas.
There are plenty of animals with viable levels of intelligence, dextrous ability, and social interaction, capable of making the leap. Great apes are the most obvious candidate for the title of Inheritors, what with their simian nature, near-anthropoid physique, and amazingly dextrous hands. However, there are other species that could potentially take a similar title if the chisel of evolution carved them the right way.
Elephants for example are rather social indeed with great levels of intelligence, but though their trunks are prehensile and rather dextrous, they don't have any kinda fingers, and their trunk is technically only one arm, so their dexterity is hampered somewhat. However, even without evolution steering them towards the anthroform and more dextrous appendages (even having multiple trunks), they could potentially form a society similar to that of Mass Effect's elcor ("With racially-charged indignation: No I DON'T want a fucking peanut you damn dirty ape!") or the mulefa from His Dark Materials, if the chisel of evolution carves their minds to higher levels of intelligence.
Dolphins and whales are another candidate; their pods are social family groups, and they exhibit respectable intelligence (and a great deal of promiscuity, I might add). However, yet again, they lack that all-important side of the triangle that is dexterity; their only truly dextrous asset is their mouths, but then again not many candidates are lacking in mouths. Still, they work well together even if they can't necessarily build things or use tools; though if they did they'd likely build their flotillas out of coral, driftwood, and maybe the mystical "stuph" that floats on water and is cast into the seas by the men of the land (spoiler alert, it's plastic). Regardless, unless dolphins became land animals, they would be unable to even come close to utilizing metallurgy; I mean seriously, underwater metallurgy is a LAUGHABLE concept at best, how the hell would it even work?
Anyway that's my two cents on the matter; the most viable candidates are highly-promising, whilst the other candidates are lacking in dexterity. It seems that "racehood" is like fire; in that both require three things in order to truly function. Whereas the fire triangle requires fuel, heat and oxygen, the racehood triangle seems to require intelligence, social ability, and dexterity. Apparently there's something called a fire tetrahedron, but I dunno how to deal with that.
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