Re: FT-Fighters and SG-aliens

G'day Bif,

 >I heard a while ago, in that we humans are
 >actually pitiful species. we are weaker, slower,
 >poorer scences, less natural weapons/defences
 >than any equaly sized species around at the moment.
 >If we could give a natural efficient preditor
 >(dog/cat/gorrila etc) our one advantage
 >(inteligence), we could create a
 >better soilder than a human.

As we have no REAL idea how and why man evolved large and complicated 
brains in the first place (there are lots of competing theories, but
little 
consensus) its kind of hard to say what would happen if we "gave" it to 
another animal. More than likely over a fairly short period (in 
evolutionary time) the animal would lose many of the "weapons" its
started 
with, because it didn't need them anymore as they now use tools. Even as

far back as a 100,000 years ago humans were so effective at hunting and 
tool making that they had pretty much brought about the extinction of
every 
large terrestrial mammal on Earth <bar the elephants....they mustn't
taste 
nice enough ;)>. Neanderthals ran down their food (or chased it off
cliffs 
etc which was easier then stabbing it to death with their thrusting 
"spears") and were quite efficient carnivores, with a diet composed of
95%+ 
meat. Homo sapiens was pretty fleet of foot too, but they developed the 
throwing spear and so got the edge, they were also nomadic not
territorial 
and had a diversified diet of grains, roots, insects, meat, scavenged 
carcasses etc. So humans are efficient predators, it was unpredictable 
environments that meant we had to have the ability to store fat in good 
times, not inefficiency. As for how other kinds of animal would act
given 
sentience that's debated to, but the only serious work ever done on 
"selective breeding for intelligence" in other mammals (in Soviet
Russia) 
suggests that they would probably converge on or way of doing things
anyway 
(due to a shared mammalian base).

Sorry if this turned into a biology lecture.... and don't let it put you

off indulging in "lets dream up an alien", that's one of my favorite
past 
times ;)

Cheers

Beth

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Elizabeth Fulton
c/o CSIRO Division of Marine Research
GPO Box 1538
HOBART
TASMANIA 7001
AUSTRALIA
Phone (03) 6232 5018 International +61 3 6232 5018
Fax 03 6232 5053 International +61 3 6232 5053