Why are humans always portrayed as the "average" race in media when its very clear we have distinct advantages over many animals?
>Good eyesight
>Fast healing
>Incredible endurance
>Ability to eat poisonous substances most animals cannot such as choclate
>Can even be trained to do echolocation
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because that gives depth to the other characters
Average implies most flexible and with fewest exploitable flaws, which implies humans are the best race
>ability to eat poisonous
nah man, youre overselling this one
tons of critters can eat at least one thing others cant
chocolate doesnt really count anyway because it doesnt exist without humans
i guess youre thinking about like a cartoon furry universe though in which case cows couldve invented chocolate or some such
Because we are humans, and so that is the default. It's like that image with different depictions of Jesus Christ, there's white Jesus, black Jesus, asian Jesus. Whatever you are seems like the normal, even if you don't mean to think that way consciously.
Because most other races are typically building off humanity in some form. From a meta point of view that is. A story that makes use of multiple races but Humans are the strongest/smartest/whateverest would be lame.
Because other species are depicted as caricatures of one single aspect of humans, necessitating humans be average.
>Good eyesight
Many animals have much better eyesight.
>Fast healing
>Incredible endurance
At peak condition. The average american cannot run for many hours straight and while they may have broken a bone or two, they're unlikely to look back on it and be fond of the healing process.
>Ability to eat poisonous substances most animals cannot such as choclate
On the other hand we can't eat many substances that animals can, such as shit and rocks.
>Can even be trained to do echolocation
So we can sort of do something that animals can do instinctually, if we train up to it?
The only thing humans have, absolutely and unequivocally over other animals, is our brains. Our superior endurance may have won the day in hunter/gatherer times, but these days very few humans can outendure, say, a deer. So the only advantage we all know we have is our brain. Other aliens are also assumed to have our intelligence, if not greater, so our one greatest advantage is nullified. Thus, we see ourselves as the "average" ones while we imagine aliens to be smarter or stronger or whatever to distinguish them.
Because writing Humans as over powered assholes isn't as fun as the alternative. But I do actually enjoy series where Humans are OP as fuck.
>Good eyesight
Average at best.
>Fast healing
No.
>Incredible endurance
Yes.
>Ability to eat poisonous substances most animals cannot such as chocolate
What is lactose intolerance?
>Can even be trained to do echolocation
Now you're just making shit up.
>outendure, say, a deer. So the only advantage we all know we have is our brain.
Well yea in a chase with the deer we can't keep up, but persistence hunting is still a thing. Everything else you said is spot on.
You can eat both shit and rocks.
Really? Then do it right now and post it.
At detriment to yourself. Technically dogs can eat chocolate as well, they just can't gorge themselves on it and their limit is very low.
Reminder that dogs only eat shit because their digestive system is shit and doesn't digest everything well the first time through.
Also you can gorge yourself on rocks and shit. I don't know why you would though.
I think a different example of something humans actually can't eat would be better. Nothing comes to mind but I'm certain there is a kind of nut or something that is poisonous to most species but one or two.
Most fiction usually portrays humans as being a "jack of all trades" race where they are relatively good in most aspects, but tend to measure up poorly against other races in areas which those races excel at. The reason for this is likely because humans are literally the self-insert race in fiction, the writer is writing from a human perspective and you will always to an extent seems "average" when compared to yourself.
Plus many people find the idea of aliens/magical beings who are very similar to humans to be boring, and the easier way to fix this is to give them exaggerated traits.
Star Trek is a good example of media where there are tons of alien races which are just as "average" as humans are.
Lactose intolerance is normal. You're not supposed to drink milk after your infant years.
Because most media wants to portray what happens when a human meets a superior lifeform.
being average means that while we don't dominate one category, we're well rounded enough where we don't have a glaring weakness that other races might have
>animals are fictional races
I apologize for using such palatable choices as rocks and shit. If you want something more toxic, there are extremophile microbes who live in, and metabolize using/"eat", extreme environments such as pure acid.
Cellulose? It's not poisonous but you can't digest it anyway. Also, I'm pretty sure eating shit can kill you. Dogs have an incredible amount of antibodies concentrated in their mouths, but we could catch all kinds of germs and die horribly.
Well the Jesus thing was because art used to have a meme where you would portray everything similar to you. Everyone knew Jesus was a Semite, but people drew him in their own style. It's pretty cool though so I don't blame them. Of course if you do something like that nowadays it would be considered "problematic."
>Vulcans are stronger than humans
>Vulcans are smarter than humans
>Vulcans have psychic abilities humans don't
>Vulcans have had warp travel longer than humans
>Humans are the dominant race in the Federation
Not sure if it was stated but our eyesight is very poor compared to many other animals.
It's only because most stories are told from the point of view of humans. If you pick up, say, the elves, they would probably simplify us too, I don't know in which aspect. Going on with the normal stereotypes, humans tend to build cities instead of prefering an specific environment (like elves with forest and dwarves with mountains/underground), and breed a lot. We could be the breeders obsessed with making buildings from their point of view.
>Our superior endurance may have won the day in hunter/gatherer times
And it wasn't only endurance, that kind of hunting requires coordinated effort among different individuals (wolves do the same), so you can add our capacity to socialize (which is present among other animals but it's not that common).
> Other aliens are also assumed to have our intelligence, if not greater, so our one greatest advantage is nullified
Wait, animals have better physical traits because we compensate with our brain, could it be a chance that aliens that are more advanced than us are also physically weaker than us?
>Vulcans are emotional retards who have to literally turn themselves autistic to stop from turning into shit-flinging niggers
>Humans progress technologically much faster than Vulcans since their discovery of warp travel
>Humans are much better at warfare than Vulcans, and if they decided they wanted to they could just wipe their pointy-eared asses off the map
Star Trek humans are fucking broken dude, you're just not paying attention.
Adaptability and genetic diversity are the greatest advantages of the human race. Put us in pretty much any environment with the proper tools and we can eke out a living in the first generation and conquer the environment in the second.
>Genetic diversity
Wew lad no, that's not even remotely true ever since the Toba eruption. Humans are almost as bad as cheetahs on that front.
Chocolate and coffee will kill most animals and we eat and drink as much of it as possible
>Average implies most flexible
not really
Why the fuck not? It's healthy.
don't forget Garlic
Humans can't eat raw meat without running the high risk of dying of foodborne illness.
Which is a hilariously massive disadvantage when compared to animals
>most writers are humans
>most humans are average
go figure
In order to compare the other species, you need a baseline. As humans are obviously the species we would be most familiar with, they are an obvious choice.
Yeah but now thanks to racemixing that 'diversity' is all going down to shit.
>those /tg/ stories where aliens are fucking terrified of humans because to them earth is a death planet and we're basically walking bags of acid that regenerate and eat everything and play war for fun
>the one where humanity is running a giant scam where everyone thinks humans are spooky Darth Vader space marines that will rip out your spine
>the one where humans go from vermin tier to overrunning a giant artificial planet and out breeding the fuck out of everything
>the one where humans goes full exterminatus mode after some other race tries to nuke them because them fighting eachother is too abhorrent, only for humanity to unite into terminator mode
I fucking love the idea that humans are the unexpected wild card instead of a boring jack of all trades
It's hilarious how horrifying and creepy we are
>wait... So you're telling me humans come out of the same place where they eject their body's toxic waste?
Holy shit take a health class.
Cum come out of benis
Pee comes out of benis
Cum goes in vagania
Pee comes out of vagania
Cum turn into human
Human come out of vagania
Pee comes out of human
Human is strange creature
Those always turn into such embarrassing circlejerks.
Y
You know I never thought of it that way.
You're a piss-baby user.
You and the rest of humanity are all piss-babies
Pee doesn't come from the vagina you idiot.
It comes from the urethral entrance near the vulva, whatever, most call it vagina.
That sounds extremely self important.
Did any of you zogs from the phlagma quadroon know humans did this thing called "eating?" Apparently instead of photosynthesizing like normal third dimensionals, they do this thing called "digesting", which basically means they get a hold of some other organic matter and force it down the same organic cavern as the one they use to breathe. I hear some even die doing it, but they do it every day! And apparently when it reaches the part where you normally have your fourth dimensional light gaze stone, they instead have this thing called as stomach where... okay you know entropy, that thing we knocked out back in our ancestral spirit journeys? Wellapparently entropy accelerates inside humans and somehow this gives the human energy. The end result is this thing called "excrement" which other beings in their planet do the same process to.
But here's the weird part, during early bioevolution humans have a built in cord directly to the stomach, but instead of leaving it alone to develop a multi purpose orifice to shoot their stomach acid fluids as a natural weapon and as a feeding tube, they... cut it off????
Can anyone explain this?
Quick question: have there ever been stories about aliens trying to understand human built artificial intelligence?
>pee comes out of vagina
literally nobody says they piss from their vagina thats a bizarre claim friendo.
Are you 12?
Are you telling me girls pee out their assholes
>Nobody says they pee from their vagina
What do they say "I pee from a hole that's pretty close to my vagina?"
There are WOMEN that don't know those are two different holes.
They're especially stupid because HFYfags make every hyperadvanced alien civilization extremely incompetent.
Or they make the aliens attempt peaceful negotiation, only for the humans to respond by commit mass planetary warcrimes.
For some reason, the latter is also something to be proud of.
ladies got three holes down there
piss-hole is up high and vajayjay is down low
it's impossible to get it mixed up so don't worry about it
>There are WOMEN that don't know those are two different holes.
What if it's actually different from person to person but there's never been a study on it, so we just don't know? Like how some girls claim they can grab their vaginal like a handle to stretch out their assholes when they need to drop a big one out the backdoor.
I mean, it's a tall claim, but do you really know, user?
Can you really say you know?
Yet humans are usually the ones to ever do anything.
>Like how some girls claim they can grab their vaginal like a handle to stretch out their assholes when they need to drop a big one out the backdoor.
I'm sorry what?
I'm sorry
W H A T ?
One of the only Star Trek time travel episodes that I liked.
>both Klingons and Romulans have had cloaking devices for centuries
>starting from scratch humans make a cloak that not only turns the ship invisible but lets it phase right through solid matter
>they could put their bridge in the same position as an enemy ship's bridge and watch and hear them do everything without them even knowing
You mean Women don't just expel waste and pop out babies from the void hole??? What the fuck have my biology teachers been showing me then?
Humans only real advantage over animals is out intelligence. Most other animals have us beat in spades when it comes to all the other shit you listed.
your urethra is a tiny hole hidden in your labia, you can't really even feel it poking around with fingers. It's all surrounded by the same nerves so it all feels the same. Plus women can't see their own vagina without a mirror
So I can understand why some women might not be aware
>grab their vaginal like a handle to stretch out their assholes when they need to drop a big one out the backdoor
are vaginas made of rubber? There's never been a study on it, so we just don't know?
>you can add our capacity to socialize
I'd say it's probably our primary strength these days, and that's what a lot of works put emphasis on — where are humans, there is some sort of empire or other large organized society.
That allows each individual human to specialize and do one thing better, giving up something that would be important for a non-social animal instead. "Superior brain" of an individual human these days doesn't posses enough knowledge to survive for a few days on it's own.
>It keeps trying to fuck me and I don't know why.
and peppers
>Good eyesight
Compared to a bat lmao
>Fast healing
Not really any more special than any other animal, humans are only as healthy as they are due to modern medicine. It hasn't even been 200 years before a broken leg was fatal.
>Incredible endurance
Yeah I'll guve you that
>Ability to eat poisonous substances most animals cannot such as choclate
But we can't eat dead and rotten meat like vultures? Or take free energy from the sun? Or even absorb the raw nutrients and shit from the environment like bacteria...
>Can even be trained to do echolocation
Autism?
A friends' step dad was poisoned with rat poison twice, the second time he went to the er he was told he had built up an immunity to cyanide
Is that what your parents told you when you scored average in school?
I feel like you're making that up but I don't know enough about Star Trek to call you out on it so I believe you
>Good eyesight
Your species couldn't compete against a trained Klingon warrior.
>Fast healing
Given how soft humans are, you'd think they'd have more backup organs.
>Incredible endurance
Try matching drinks with a Klingon.
>Ability to eat poisonous substances most animals cannot such as choclate
You can't even drink our tea.
>Can even be trained to do echolocation
You have to be trained for that?
>Or take free energy from the sun?
But we do. Sun exposure is our main source of vitamin D.
