What makes an animal superior?

[Sidney johnson]

I was talking with my father yesterday and he was talking to me about how cats are the superior and are truly most perfect of all creatures. It got me thinking, what makes an animal superior. The question really is complicated

Size? Well It cant be because whales have been hunted to extinction by things much smaller than them, and millions of humans have died because of a bacteria known as the plague, to small to be seen with the naked eye. So that cant be it.

Ability to kill other creatures? That would render most plants, many parasites, some would even say herbivorous animals completely obsolete, and we know that cant be the case, also because animals like whales who kill billions of shrimp in their lifetime would be absolutely superior, and algae eating insects even more superior. So that cant be it.

Intelligence? While this is a hard one to disprove we really are not at the top, we might be far outlived by certain bacteria or water-bears who are extremely susceptible to change. Since as far as we know colonizing mars and exploring the moon and creating 4 ounce brain blocks called phones really isn't necessarily making us superior, cause even with these we don't have a much higher chance of survival than any other species.

Adaptability? A great example for this is the Water bear, they can survive deep space, centuries without water or food, they can survive near absolute zero and boiling water, but water bears wont breed better or mate faster because of this, they can just get into the nooks and cranny's of certain areas which we can't.

Population? This is another one hard one to disprove, so lets look at bacteria, they can reproduce at thousands a minute, they overpopulate humans by the quadrillions, but they die so quickly and have almost no effect on what kills them besides simply evolving to fit it. 

Unaltered? This is the best one i can think of, obviously the inability to survive or mate leads to change, an unaltered animal is therefore unchangeable, there is no reason to change it, therefore, perfect, given its situation, crocodiles are very superior to other animals, horseshoe-crabs even more, sharks,  maybe even humans, we don't know if we will change or die off in the text trillion years. But so far the most successful animal known to man, is the... drum roll... Cyanobacteria, or algae, With 2.8 billion years without any major change!

And since most modern species of cats came to be less than 15 million years ago house cats really arent very superior.

 

Edited September 19, 2018 by Sidney johnson

[swansont]

Not really any such objective notion as superior. It's subjective. It, as you point out, depends on the criteria you choose, and you can choose criteria to get a wide range of answers. You could also include total number, and it would be the nematode, and mass, and your answer would be krill.

[Sidney johnson]

Superior simply means better than, now while you can be better than  someone at 1 thing, I am simply saying that an creatures goal is to survive, and that is the only way an animal can be superior at being an animal. All other manners in which an animal can be superior that I stated wouldn’t necessarily make a creature better at continuing to be that same creature. So there really only is 1 way a creature could be superior at continuing to live. I should have made that more clear in the begging. All other forums of superiority aren’t specific to being a creature.

[CharonY]

In that case currently all animals that are not extinct yet are equally superior. They all survived the same amount of time.

[Sidney johnson]

It depends what you consider an animal, I am strictly speaking about individual species, but I see your point.

[John Cuthber]

You need to start by defining "superior"

I like bacon so I think that salting and drying makes an animal superior.

[Phi for All]

1 hour ago, John Cuthber said:

You need to start by defining "superior"

I like bacon so I think that salting and drying makes an animal superior.

That makes a pig superior. I think marinating in olive oil, balsamic vinegar, garlic, and marmalade makes a cow superior.

[CharonY]

18 minutes ago, Phi for All said:

That makes a pig superior. I think marinating in olive oil, balsamic vinegar, garlic, and marmalade makes a cow superior.

I was agreeing up to the point of marmalade. I believe that aceto balsamico would take care of the sweet/sour aspect sufficiently. 

[Phi for All]

21 minutes ago, CharonY said:

I was agreeing up to the point of marmalade. I believe that aceto balsamico would take care of the sweet/sour aspect sufficiently. 

And give me a nice caramelization? I also find a bit of lemon/orange zest makes a cow even more superior.

[CharonY]

6 minutes ago, Phi for All said:

And give me a nice caramelization? I also find a bit of lemon/orange zest makes a cow even more superior.

I guess it is a matter of preference, but generally I find the amount of sugar overwhelming (the acidity and fruity part is fine, though I would go easy on cows for that, but as usual, that is just a matter of preference). But I do think that proper aceto balsamico (esp. tradizionale) is already fairly high in sugars, not to mention smooth in its acidic balance and just syrupy enough to create the perfect glaze (ca. 0.5-0.7 Pa s to be precise).

[Phi for All]

3 minutes ago, CharonY said:

(ca. 0.5-0.7 Pa s to be precise).

Anything more precise on marination time and temperature?

Some animals achieve superiority by being delicious. Cats will never make it to a trillion years, because of the hairball-on-the-carpet-NEXT-TO-the hardwood-floor behavior gene, imo. 

[CharonY]

28 minutes ago, Phi for All said:

Anything more precise on marination time and temperature?

To be honest, I only ever used proper tradizionale once for marinating (as an experiment) because it is just so darn expensive. Even just as a final glaze it is costly (but delicious). That being said, some younger versions (say 7-8 years aged) are more affordable and I experimented with lamb a bit. Realistically though the marinating time will depend on the exposed surface. Lamb chops, for example do not seem to benefit from more than 2h (but even longer won't hurt), larger cuts need closer to 6 hours before I did not notice any differences. I am not sure what you mean with temperature. If you refer to marinating, all should be done at temperatures inhibiting bacterial growth, so realistically it will be in the fridge.

[mistermack]

Cats and dogs are on a higher level than humans. They must be. We voluntarily feed them, keep them warm and dry, pay their medical bills and exercise and entertain them.

And they can lick their own genitals. 

Humans don't even come close.

[J.C.MacSwell]

On 9/18/2018 at 9:00 PM, Sidney johnson said:

 

Size? Well It cant be because whales have been hunted to extinction by things much smaller than them, and millions of humans have died because of a bacteria known as the plague, to small to be seen with the naked eye. So that cant be it.

 

 

Still could be size...

...small power!

[John Cuthber]

2 hours ago, mistermack said:

They must be. We voluntarily feed them, keep them warm and dry,...

You might. I don't 
I am clearly the superior animal.

[mistermack]

12 hours ago, John Cuthber said:

You might. I don't 
I am clearly the superior animal.

I'm impressed.

I'll be even more impressed when I see you lick your own dick. (And teach me how it's done !!)

 

 

Edit: I mean teach me how to lick MY dick, not ......     

Oh, forget that bit. 

Edited September 22, 2018 by mistermack

[John Cuthber]

2 hours ago, mistermack said:

I'm impressed.

I'll be even more impressed when I see you lick your own dick. (And teach me how it's done !!)

 

 

Edit: I mean teach me how to lick MY dick, not ......     

Oh, forget that bit. 

Let's just say that I'm part of a social species.

[Sidney johnson]

On 9/21/2018 at 9:21 AM, John Cuthber said:

You need to start by defining "superior"

I like bacon so I think that salting and drying makes an animal superior.

I should have done a better job of explaining that at the beginning, but I kinda brushed up on it in my first response. I’m sorry if I don’t make any sense English is my first language. First means 2 right?