As an adult, I've had three dogs. All three of them would chase the projectile, then stand next to it and stare at me or go on to their own activities. I'm pretty sure I've never had a dog successfully retrieve anything.
I have had four dogs as an adult. Only the first one liked to play fetch. The other three have disappointed me and I have told them how they have let me down in this department more than once. They look at me like they don't understand, but they know. Oh yes, they know.
Human brains are very, very good at instinctively understanding parabolic trajectories. In short, we're evolved to be great at throwing stuff. Nothing else in the animal kingdom is as good at it as us, not even closely related primates like chimpanzees.
Yeah I have always been amazed at the complexity of the shoulder joint. You basically have two concentric sets of muscles that do the same thing, but one is for power (the deltoid) and one is for precision (the rotator cuff). I'm oversimplifying but it is pretty unique and it's why humans are so insanely good with their arms/hands. Looking at other apes trying to hammer a nail for instance, there's no comparison.
I thought it was spears. Guess it could be rocks. I threw a pinecone at a magpie to shoo it away and I think it broke his brain to see something coming at him like that.
So here's the thing: we don't know that, really. If we find a spear that has one side sharpened and it's dated 40,000 bc, then we find another spear and both sides are sharpened dated 30,000 bc, it may appear that way... But we literally have a vague guess at best. If 1 million years from now an archeologist finds a kitchen knife and concludes that in the 2000's we were still figuring out double sided knives, then they would be hilariously wrong.
Humans are fucking unfair man. They win in so many different ways. You're smaller than me? Lemme yeet this rock. You're bigger than me and running away? It's cool, I'll catch up later; you'll pass out before I do. You're bigger than me and running towards me? Sweet, I just turned this rock and stick into a pair of claws that would make a lion blush, and my homies all got em too.
Oh yeah and those plants we all eat? I figured out how to make more of them! And I told all my friends how to do it to, because we have LANGUAGE!
And then before long they're all "see that big shiny rock in the sky? Yeah, I pissed on it"
Hmm, why does the hominid that just discovered hunting and whose most efficient tool is a rock have a physique that suggests high levels of activity and low access to sugars, fats, and surplus calories?
53 Comments
droporain@lemmynsfw.com · 78 pts · 1y
PugJesus@lemmy.world · 43 pts · 1y
Rock is sad now
droporain@lemmynsfw.com · 37 pts · 1y
stardustpathsofglory@lemmy.world · 35 pts · 1y
rockSlayer@lemmy.world · 15 pts · 1y
Rock is doing a good job
droporain@lemmynsfw.com · 13 pts · 1y
starman2112@sh.itjust.works · 2 pts · 1y
Land of the Lustrous in a nutshell
DaddleDew@lemmy.world · 69 pts · 1y
What if dogs like to play fetch because watching you throw something is mindblowing to them?
scaryjelly@lemm.ee · 34 pts · 1y
toynbee@lemmy.world · 10 pts · 1y
I wish my dogs would play fetch.
As an adult, I've had three dogs. All three of them would chase the projectile, then stand next to it and stare at me or go on to their own activities. I'm pretty sure I've never had a dog successfully retrieve anything.
It makes the game a lot harder.
FlyingSquid@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 1y
I have had four dogs as an adult. Only the first one liked to play fetch. The other three have disappointed me and I have told them how they have let me down in this department more than once. They look at me like they don't understand, but they know. Oh yes, they know.
Klear@lemmy.world · 6 pts · 1y
I saw the frisbee getting bigger and bigger and couldn't figure out why it does that.
Then it hit me.
Shardikprime@lemmy.world · -1 pts · 1y
LMAO 🤣
dual_sport_dork@lemmy.world · 63 pts · 1y
This is actually legit.
Human brains are very, very good at instinctively understanding parabolic trajectories. In short, we're evolved to be great at throwing stuff. Nothing else in the animal kingdom is as good at it as us, not even closely related primates like chimpanzees.
Cypher@lemmy.world · 25 pts · 1y
LaLuzDelSol@lemmy.world · 4 pts · 1y
Yeah I have always been amazed at the complexity of the shoulder joint. You basically have two concentric sets of muscles that do the same thing, but one is for power (the deltoid) and one is for precision (the rotator cuff). I'm oversimplifying but it is pretty unique and it's why humans are so insanely good with their arms/hands. Looking at other apes trying to hammer a nail for instance, there's no comparison.
jaybone@lemmy.world · 4 pts · 1y
But if you put them in a zoo, they will learn to throw feces.
muse@lemmy.blahaj.zone · 3 pts · 1y
Ioughttamow@fedia.io · 28 pts · 1y
The rocks used animal husbandry to get us to move them around
someguy3@lemmy.world · 27 pts · 1y
I thought it was spears. Guess it could be rocks. I threw a pinecone at a magpie to shoo it away and I think it broke his brain to see something coming at him like that.
marcos@lemmy.world · 27 pts · 1y
You have to start somewhere. And that somewhere certainly wasn't multi-part stick-rocks throwables with complex mechanical movement amplifiers.
Skullgrid@lemmy.world · 13 pts · 1y
I looked at the post, and for a while the only part I saw was "Amplifiers"
marcos@lemmy.world · 7 pts · 1y
Maybe a few more words will make the concept clearer:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spear-thrower
Skullgrid@lemmy.world · 6 pts · 1y
Neat.
My comment was more about "electric guitar word found! Disregard the rest of the sentence."
Amanduh@lemm.ee · 4 pts · 1y
Catapults are cool
someguy3@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 1y
I'm not talking about the start of throwing, I'm talking about the start of evolutionary dominance.
rockSlayer@lemmy.world · 8 pts · 1y
Rocks make pointy stick, but pointy rock on stick even better for throwing!
hungryphrog@lemmy.blahaj.zone · 5 pts · 1y
What are these 'spears' you talk about? All this modern nonsense.
GreenAppleTree@lemmy.world · 5 pts · 1y
Ehh, it's just a fad. The long-stick bubble is gonna burst soon. Just you watch.
Zorsith@lemmy.blahaj.zone · 5 pts · 1y
Pfft, Imagine needing anything more than your bare hands and the ability to perspire.
Endurance predator FTW!
FlyingSquid@lemmy.world · 4 pts · 1y
Don't do that to a corvid. They remember human faces and they let their big families know about it too.
https://www.discovermagazine.com/planet-earth/grudge-holding-crows-pass-on-their-anger-to-family-and-friends
someguy3@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 1y
Good they learned to stop pecking at my siding.
Shardikprime@lemmy.world · 26 pts · 1y
Wait till they learn about the infinite food glitch
rockerface@lemm.ee · 26 pts · 1y
What? You bury food in the ground and more food comes out? You expect us to believe that?
Shardikprime@lemmy.world · 10 pts · 1y
Fucking incredible I know
hungryphrog@lemmy.blahaj.zone · 23 pts · 1y
Imagine how crazy it'd be if you found a way to attach a STICK to the rock and make the rock sharper...
TriflingToad@sh.itjust.works · 37 pts · 1y
you're never gonna believe what my buddy Ungabung just made...
Saleh@feddit.org · 21 pts · 1y
I remember at some museum they said it took about 10.000 years for pre-humans to move from sharpening one side of a stone to sharpening both sides.
We went from using sharpened stones to landing on the moon in the same timeframe.
grandkaiser@lemmy.today · 24 pts · 1y
So here's the thing: we don't know that, really. If we find a spear that has one side sharpened and it's dated 40,000 bc, then we find another spear and both sides are sharpened dated 30,000 bc, it may appear that way... But we literally have a vague guess at best. If 1 million years from now an archeologist finds a kitchen knife and concludes that in the 2000's we were still figuring out double sided knives, then they would be hilariously wrong.
starman2112@sh.itjust.works · 20 pts · 1y
Humans are fucking unfair man. They win in so many different ways. You're smaller than me? Lemme yeet this rock. You're bigger than me and running away? It's cool, I'll catch up later; you'll pass out before I do. You're bigger than me and running towards me? Sweet, I just turned this rock and stick into a pair of claws that would make a lion blush, and my homies all got em too.
Oh yeah and those plants we all eat? I figured out how to make more of them! And I told all my friends how to do it to, because we have LANGUAGE!
And then before long they're all "see that big shiny rock in the sky? Yeah, I pissed on it"
ICastFist@programming.dev · 16 pts · 1y
GUYS! GUYS!! HOLY SHIT YOU WON'T BELIEVE!!! I threw a rock, it hit another rock and there were these sparks!!
Moc@lemmy.world · 11 pts · 1y
Hupf@feddit.org · 9 pts · 1y
Next you know, you throw a rock and it starts to think!
Evil_Shrubbery@lemm.ee · 16 pts · 1y
First it was the the thicc asses (for long running & creepy stalking), then came the biceps & shoulder combo.
I bet we first developed such unique throwing abilities just to fling our poop further.
(Similarly, I actually think we bred our thicc butts to twerk better.)
Shardikprime@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 1y
I like big paleolithic butts and I cannot lie
FlyingSquid@lemmy.world · 10 pts · 1y
As a capuchin monkey myself, I am happy just throwing feces, thank you.
AngryCommieKender@lemmy.world · 6 pts · 1y
Username does NOT check out.
otterpop@lemmy.world · 8 pts · 1y
I feel like posting Aesop Rocks song on the subject is obligatory here: https://youtu.be/T7jH-5YQLcE
Emmie@lemm.ee · 3 pts · 1y
Technology bad
UnPassive@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 1y
I'm harrier than that...
starman2112@sh.itjust.works · 7 pts · 1y
This you?
UnPassive@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 1y
I wish... Meant hairier 🙃
vanderbilt@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 1y
Ardipithicus moment. Oopsee I have developed organized hunting and weapons usage 😇
Gullible@sh.itjust.works · 1 pts · 1y
Why is the Neanderthal so thin?
Skua@kbin.earth · 18 pts · 1y
only just learned to throw rocks, hasn't had the time to catch much food with the new technique yet
Please_Do_Not@lemm.ee · 13 pts · 1y
Hmm, why does the hominid that just discovered hunting and whose most efficient tool is a rock have a physique that suggests high levels of activity and low access to sugars, fats, and surplus calories?
Gullible@sh.itjust.works · 1 pts · 1y
Completely missed my point, bud
Please_Do_Not@lemm.ee · 3 pts · 1y
That one's even thinner.
Jk my b, seemed like the most likely interpretation of thin.
Shardikprime@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 1y
You don't get it
That's a big ass rock
the banana for scale would be the size of his pinky finger