Hamuns! AGH!

[Human#3.141592653]

I've noticed that many humans have very opinionated opinions (:confused:) on humans. One person’s sig says: “You are speaking to a human being,” indicating that being a person is something to respect. Another has a quote form Neiteichze…Nietiechze…er…NeeChee: “Human, all too human,” indicating something vaguely disappointing.
What do you, (the people, the humans, out there some where, on line…I can hear you breathing!) think?
Do humans think?
Is being a human a good thing?
I assume that every one living and interacting with other humans must like it at least a little, but what I’m proposing is a *intellectual* (:rolleyes:) possibly *philosophical* (:eek:) discussion about people. Which means to say that any thing said can be good in the big picture but doesn’t have to apply to the “real world,” (when I find it.)
Random facts are welcome.

Did you know that monkeys are the only other animals besides humans that masturbate?:eek:

[BeardofPants]

Apes do it too. And a lot of other animals will hump animate and inanimate objects without pursuing intercourse.

Humans, eh? How would you define humanity? Would you define it as good? Is there such thing as good? How would you define good? In whose perception would this belong to? Western? Does that perception differ from others? etc, and so forth. Is that what you're after? :rolleyes:

[Sween]

that peice of info on the mokey will make for a good pub convo tonight.

seriously whats your point? Yes we all disagree on things. it would be a dull world if we all agreed and thought the same. i doubt there is anyone out there who is exctally the same as me (well i hope there insnt for the good of the world)

[Treebeard's apprentice]

This could take up an entire new forum. What do you want to talk about first? The existence of God or gods? The soul? Maybe we need to define what makes something human. In that case, where did we come from? If we evolved from apes, as many believe, at what point did we stop being apes and become humans? You also need to determine the difference between good & evil.

These topics (and others) have been debated before any of us were even born, and will most likely continue long after we're dead without ever coming close to a real conclusion. That's why philosophy is so phun:) !



P.S. Dolphins are considered the most intelligent creatures after humans. They are also the only species known to have sex just for the fun of it.

[BeardofPants]

Erm. Bonobos do as well. In fact that's basically all they do. :D

[Human#3.141592653]

The conversation I hoped to inspire is exactly the one we're having.
Go me! :p :rolleyes:
I think that humans are nice in small protions. But most of the institutions (sp?!) they made are...er...well...flawed.

What's a Bonobos?

I also heard that about dolphins. I also heard that Bottle nosed (sea) dolphins sometinmes mate with river dolphins. They make these infertile hybred-dolphinms; like mules, only under the sea.

[galadriel88]

This reminds me of a discussion we had in Science today...

We're studying about the planets, and our teacher told us that it is entirely possible for there to be a planet on the other side of the sun that we of course can't see, that has a climate very similar to ours with oxygen and water and stuff, and....intelligent life! Sooo, if there is this unknown planet out there with life on it, are there humans? Are they as developed as us? Do they have similar languages? And so forth. Just something to consider...

[Rána Eressëa]

Doubtfully there are humans. I don't think humans, apes, and all that could envolve in many different places, but maybe they could. There are probably creatures similiar to ours, or very different. I don't think there would be too many - if any - creatures exactly like the ones we have here.

I think humans just are. Now, either I will allow myself to believe every single creature is special, or none are - either way, however, none of them are any better than another, if you see where I'm coming from.

[markedel]

The reasons institutions are flawed are because humans are flawed. Wait three monts and you can help me with my political studies exams.

[BeardofPants]

Originally posted by galadriel88
Sooo, if there is this unknown planet out there with life on it, are there humans? Are they as developed as us? Do they have similar languages? And so forth. Just something to consider...

It depends on whether you think that evolution occured via convergence, or divergence. I haven't really decided yet which one is more feasible....

[HOBBIT]

Originally posted by galadriel88
This reminds me of a discussion we had in Science today...

We're studying about the planets, and our teacher told us that it is entirely possible for there to be a planet on the other side of the sun that we of course can't see, that has a climate very similar to ours with oxygen and water and stuff, and....intelligent life! Sooo, if there is this unknown planet out there with life on it, are there humans? Are they as developed as us? Do they have similar languages? And so forth. Just something to consider...

Hmm maybe I'm just really tired and stressed out, but what are you talking about? Other side of the sun?? The Earth and other 8 planets aren't just on one side of the sun... We go around the sun in an eliptical orbit - like an oval. So that would rule out the possibility of a planet being 'on the other side of the sun.' Do you mean a possible planet that has an orbit farther than pluto that revolves around our sun?

[Renille]

I think...you just mentioned my sig...so I think I'll use up a valuable 4 minutes and post :p.

Of course humans' institutions are flawed...nothing here on earth is perfect. Even in animal life, moms abandon their young and even eat them. Maybe there is some planet way up somewhere, and in that planet they're more advanced than we are. But not perfect. I don't think it's possible for an entire race to be perfect.

[Sween]

How does a dolpin masterbate? :confused:

[Elfmaster XK]

(:rolleyes possibly *philosophical*)

Philosophical!!! Well i'd love to, but i'd just end up telling you everything is relative, and relativity is pointless. It all leads to existance is pointless. So i wouldn't talk philosopically to me :D

Hmm maybe I'm just really tired and stressed out, but what are you talking about? Other side of the sun??

Perhaps she meant other side of the galaxy. :confused:

I think humans just are. Now, either I will allow myself to believe every single creature is special, or none are - either way, however, none of them are any better than another, if you see where I'm coming from.

I'd agree with this!

[Treebeard's apprentice]

I believe that if there is life on another planet, it is probably nothing at all like the life we have here. There is a potentially infinite amount of ways for life to form, so the chances are unimaginably small that another planet will produce life exactly like Earth's.

This exact reason is why I have so much trouble swallowing the story of Superman. He's from a planet who knows how many light-years away, yet the dominant species were exactly like Earth-humans in every way. The only difference is that the yellow sun somehow gave him superpowers, which doesn't make any sense to me and no one has been able to explain it to me. At least Batman is slightly believable to a certain extent.



P.S. It is impossible for a human to lick their own elbow.

[markedel]

It depends on the nature of life. Maybe there isn't an infinite number of ways for life, especially sentient life to form. If so lifebearing planets would be very, perhaps uncannily earthlike.

[osszie]

I don't know if there is an infinite number of ways for life to form but on our own planet recent discovery of life that survives on the sulphur from undersea volcanoes has forced the scientific commuity to re-think "what is vital for life". Certainly it has changed how we think alien life would/could evolve.

As for life on other planets.......I see no reason why not. Space is infinite, and thus there are infinite possibilities.

Will we find life that is not terrestrial in origin? Who knows:confused: . Two big obstacles are in our way. Space (obviously) we do not have the techonology to travel or observe very far into space (relatively speaking). Even if we did have such technology where would we go? To explore every star with planets would take hundreds (if not more) of years.

The second obstacle is time. We (as a species) have been here only a minute amount of time. It also looks like, if we're not careful, that this planet will be unihabitable (poution, irradiation, depletion of resources etc etc) relatively quickly. Now, the light from some stars has travelled for longer than the earth has held life, and we're only seeing it now! If we did discover intelligent life on another planet by the time we came into contact with each other we (or they) could have evolved into something completely different, if not died out entirely. (I'm not trying to be over pessimistic but species become extinct on this planet every day as new ones evolve)

The odds of finding a new alien species as it occupies its "time frame" are, to be blunt, infinite.

As a certain Mr Lucas said.......................

"A Long Time Ago.....in a Galaxy Far Far Away"

[Wayfarer]

We think humans are special because we are humans- we have a unique perspective. We are the only species that we have the inside take on.

And love us or hate us, humans are what we are.

[Wayfarer]

Although, personally, I think I'm pretty special because I know how to spell 'human'. ]: )

[osszie]

Originally posted by Wayfarer
Although, personally, I think I'm pretty special because I know how to spell 'human'. ]: )

Yes, vowel trouble is a terrible thing;)

(not a stranger to typos myself)

[Andúril]

A couple years back I saw a dog masturbate. .:eek:

No jokes.

[edit]Hmmm, actually I see dogs masturbating all the time. Duh!

[Sween]

it depends how u define masterbate my cousins dog would often get his wenner stuck somewhere and have a good old tug

[osszie]

Originally posted by Sween
it depends how u define masterbate my cousins dog would often get his wenner stuck somewhere and have a good old tug

hahahahaha..........roflmfao:D

did the poor dog have an out of proportion wenner of summit........sween yer got me brain full of very strange images at the mo:D :D

[Sween]

Originally posted by osszie
hahahahaha..........roflmfao:D

did the poor dog have an out of proportion wenner of summit........sween yer got me brain full of very strange images at the mo:D :D

welcome to my world :D

[Human#3.141592653]

Webster (and yes, I checked) Defines masterate as:
"*doing it* by hand."
Dog can't. They haven't got hands. Monkeys and other apes that do have hands can.
Wait...how'd we get on this topic? (Ok, it's mostly my fault...)
And what's a frikkin' Bonobos???:mad:

[Elfmaster XK]

Bonobo is just another ape-like creature.

Here (http://www.panda.org/species/bonobo/) is something about them. I found you a nice random info. place :D

[Human#3.141592653]

Oh yeah!
Thank you!:)
Poor Bonobos, thier habitat is shirking. They've got no pace to just let it all...hang out.

Ok, back to huamns...I read in this book about Wolves how in a time long long ago, wolves and humans fought each other because they were both big preditors. They were at each other's throats over game and territory. The cats too, were on the prowle, ever warey. Then the humans domesticated the wolf(er...dog) and the cat.
Now cats and dogs fight, and go running to humans for food.
I thought that it was kind of interesting...:rolleyes:
Ok it's kind of boring! Shaddap! :D

[Elfmaster XK]

No problem Human pie!

Now perhaps we can do something about the spelling...:rolleyes: :D

It wasn't boring, it was random.

Random fact - The Eiffel Tower weighs more than 1000 elephants.

[Sween]

kool we bitchslapped our once biggest enemys into our faithfull servents lets that be a lesson to any creature that trys to userp us.

Long live the humans.

We are capable of a lot if we set our minds to it just today i thought i would make a table out of wood and i did. you may say so what but i say to you when was the last time you saw a dolphin make a table. i am also sure we are the only species to create sauces for fish dishes like tarta sauce mmmmmmm tarta sauce :D

Random fact : cockermouth has the fith largest consumption of beer per mile in the whole of britian and i reckon i make up a good 1% of that :D

[cassiopeia]

Originally posted by osszie

As for life on other planets.......I see no reason why not. Space is infinite, and thus there are infinite possibilities.

Space is not infinite. This is basically proved (if you can ever prove something) by Olbers paradox, which asks why the sky is dark at night. It's not dark at night because the universe started at some finite time ago and because the universe is not finite in size.

Originally posted by galadriel88

This reminds me of a discussion we had in Science today...

We're studying about the planets, and our teacher told us that it is entirely possible for there to be a planet on the other side of the sun that we of course can't see, that has a climate very similar to ours with oxygen and water and stuff, and....intelligent life! Sooo, if there is this unknown planet out there with life on it, are there humans? Are they as developed as us? Do they have similar languages? And so forth. Just something to consider...

If your teacher said that, I would complain to the school. It is not possible for us not to know about an Earth sized planet going around the sun. If it had a climate similar to ours and liquid water, its orbit would be nearly the same as ours. I think that if we can see distant quasars 10 billion light years away, we can see a small planet near our orbit.

Ok, what was this thread about? :D Species are defined as animals which can mate together, so humans can mate with other humans.

This may be OT, but I was thinking about people claiming that they can talk to the dead. Suppose they could. Is is just humans that stick around somehow after they die, or does every other lifeform, from viruses to cows stick around too? If its only humans, then when did humans start staying? Was it when we were like we are today, or when we started to evolve from apes or what? And if we do stay around, will we still be around when the sun engolfs the Earth in 5 billion years? Draw your own conclusions from my reasoning.

[osszie]

Originally posted by cassiopeia
Space is not infinite. This is basically proved (if you can ever prove something) by Olbers paradox, which asks why the sky is dark at night. It's not dark at night because the universe started at some finite time ago and because the universe is not finite in size.

I agree that our universe has a starting point, and thus an ending point as well but that is just THIS universe. Are you saying that if we travelled far enough, out of our universe, we would come to the end of space?

As our universe is constantly growing, does this mean that it too has the potential to become infinite?

[Human#3.141592653]

Space is not infinite. This is basically proved (if you can ever prove something) by Olbers paradox, which asks why the sky is dark at night. It's not dark at night because the universe started at some finite time ago and because the universe is not finite in size.

What what? Run that one by me again...

Species are defined as animals which can mate together, so humans can mate with other humans.

I've heard tales about humans and live stock...

I agree that our universe has a starting point, and thus an ending point as well but that is just THIS universe. Are you saying that if we travelled far enough, out of our universe, we would come to the end of space?

Form what I hear there are four possiblities of how teh universe will end.
#1. All energy gets trapped in matter form, and the whole of the universe hit absolute zero. (this also has a lot to do with how the universe expands.)
#2. All matter get's tapped in energy form and the universe is too hot for us to live.
I can't remeber #3
#4. the universe gets sucked back in on itself.

Now perhaps we can do something about the spelling...

!it no gnikrow ma I:rolleyes:

[osszie]

It does they are called "black holes". As they absorb energy/matter they eventually reach a point where they can absorb no more...........resulting in a "big bang".

Stars (and for that matter) universes are re-born throughout time (time being just a concept anyway).

:)

[Human#3.141592653]

I think I speak for every one here when I say:
"Neh?!"
:confused:
I thought black holes were the other side of white holes and a white/black hole system was called a worm hole...ya get sucked in one way and spit out the other...
Is that not correct?
:(

[Human#3.141592653]

Any way, I like your sig, and I think it's very apropos to the conversation... :D

[osszie]

Sorry human pie........all a black hole is just a big gravity sink....it's not a wormhole it is a "hole" in space......the nearest we know (theoretically) to "nothing" (I say theoretically because there is no physical proof that black holes actually exist).

please don't take me too seriously on this..........even Einstein eventually said "some things only God can answer".........but with his most famous theory recently been blown out of the water.....who was he to talk;) [SIZE=1]

[Dunadan]

Forgive the intrusion, but what does:

Originally posted by osszie
but with his most famous theory recently been blown out of the water [SIZE=1]

refer to?

cheers

D.

[osszie]

It's here dunadan

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/2181455.stm

:)

[galadriel88]

Hmm maybe I'm just really tired and stressed out, but what are you talking about? Other side of the sun?? The Earth and other 8 planets aren't just on one side of the sun... We go around the sun in an eliptical orbit - like an oval. So that would rule out the possibility of a planet being 'on the other side of the sun.' Do you mean a possible planet that has an orbit farther than pluto that revolves around our sun?

Ok, this could take a while....

Get 3 balls, 2 the same size and 1 way bigger than the other 2. (You might want to get someone to help you with this.) Hold the big ball at eye level and place one smaller ball directly in front of it. Place the other ball on directly in front of the other side of the large ball, the same distance away from the big ball as the ball on the other side. Now move the balls at the same speed, circling the big ball. If you were on one of those little balls, you wouldn't be able to see the other little ball would you? The big ball (the sun) is in the way, and the other little ball is always directly opposite of you.

[Duddun]

I think being a human is a good thing but that we should not over celebrate being a human.

[Khamûl]

This thread has gone off topic. Please redirect this conversation back to the discussion of humans and human nature.

[emplynx]

Originally posted by Rána Eressëa
Doubtfully there are humans. I don't think humans, apes, and all that could envolve in many different places, but maybe they could. They could have be created.

[Human#3.141592653]

This thread has gone off topic. Please redirect this conversation back to the discussion of humans and human nature.
Is that what this is all about?:P

Ok, humans. Er. Well they certainly are intersting to watch aren't they? Must be; I hear about Jerry Springer and Survivor and Who wants to marry a Millionare and so forth and so on.
My. We humans certainly are a Narcissistic spieces, aren't we? Can't stop talking our thinking about our selves.:D

[LuthienTinuviel]

We humans certainly are a Narcissistic spieces, aren't we? Can't stop talking our thinking about our selves

speak for your self, human!

[Human#3.141592653]

Hey! I take that as a personal assult! ;) :D

On Star Trek, the Furngi use "Human" as an insult.

[Silverstripe]

But I like Humans!

[Nibs]

Humans make up the best and worst people I know. I'll take the bad with the good.

Only because I HAVE TO. I'd love to chill with some of the people I most admire all day... but that would be inhuman, I suppose.

[Silverstripe]

True. Humans can be excellent creatures, or they can be depraved monsters. But most humans I know fall somewhere in between.

[Wayfarer]

Man is the Scum and Glory of the Universe.
-Blaise Pascal

[Silverstripe]

True, very true, Wayfarer.

[Laurelyn]

You guys are human?
Golly, was I supposed to know that?
:)

[Silverstripe]

Originally posted by Laurelyn
You guys are human?
Golly, was I supposed to know that?
:)

*sounding annoyed* Now when did I ever say I was human? *goes into a corner and sulks*