the fastest animal
Can you name the fastest animal on the planet? How about the strongest? The most dangerous? I can imagine some of the answers you may be thinking. The fastest animal has to be the Cheetah (if you are thinking the fastest land animal) or a falcon which dive bombs at speeds in excess of 200 miles per hour. Certainly an elephant or a Blue Whale has to be the strongest, or you might even think some insect if you are measuring strength relative to the animal’s size. The most dangerous has to be something poisonous. In terms of deaths to people, chances are the lowly bee may be a strong contender.But how about the human animal? Humans?, I can hear you asking. You’re crazy. The fastest human can barely run 25 miles per hour. That is correct, but the fastest human flies in excess of 20,000 miles per hour (more than 100X the speed of that dive bombing falcon). The strongest human can lift maybe 800 lbs., about 2.5X their own weight. But with the aid of powerful engines, humans can move millions of times their own weight. And who can argue with the danger humans pose, not just to themselves, but to the entire planet?
Ahh, I hear you start… but humans can’t achieve those things under their own power. No? Then under whose power was the rocket designed and built? Who created the engines that augment our efforts by orders of magnitude? It was the power of the human mind that made these advancements possible. The human mind is man’s advantage, just as the sleek build of the cheetah is the cheetah’s advantage in a foot race. If you want to dismiss man’s advantage when determining the champion of these categories, then why not dismiss the advantage the cheetah has or the falcon or the ant?
There is a scene in the Ice Age animated film where Sid the sloth looks at the human baby in his care, and observes his lack of claws, fangs, strength and his inordinate need for care and attention. Sid doesn’t find the baby terribly threatening. He discounts the power of the human mind. The power of the human mind is what makes the baby one of the most formidable challengers this planet has ever known.
In the planetary timescale, man has been around for relatively very little time, but in that short time, man has progressed to the point where we now stand on the brink of controlling our very own evolution. We possess the amazing capacity to destroy the planet we live on. We’re also the only species that can save it. If the planet ever faces another catastrophic event that threatens to wipe out almost all life (they do come around periodically) man alone will offer it the only hope it has ever seen of avoiding the catastrophe. Regardless of how you feel about that (some feel we need a culling of the herd), the mere fact that it is even possible is pretty amazing.
What we lack in advantages that other animals possess, we more than make up with our intellectual abilities. I think too many don’t fully appreciate the unique nature of what it is to be human. We have significant potential. The challenge is living up to it.
posted by bylaw @ 9:28 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home