Humans as the most dominant species - (May/05/2007 )
Humans as the most dominant species, by this i means "the most intelligent"... do you believe in this?
Because sometimes i think we are the most advanced bec of the way of how we define things such as intelligence, communication etc. Maybe in the eyes of animals or other organisms we are the "lesser" type of species based on their definitions.
As analogy, if youve seen the movie "The Others" by Nicole Kidman. With which in that movie, they were thinking of seeing a ghost, but on the other hand, they were the ghosts in the "eye" of those so called "ghosts".
i think they have their own intelligence, it depends also in your definition of intelligence
for instance , some other species have special capabilities which make them more intelligent than humans "in a way" 
well in this case, i define "intelligence" in terms of progress of civilizations from cave people to present humans. But of course that is the human criterion
In terms of ability to modify our environment for our needs, we win hands down. Whether good or bad, we are the only species that can build things for ourselves to escape our ecological niche (see me, a tropical animal, living comfortably in Canada! 
) We domesticate things, we build massive structures with artificial products, we clothe ourselves, we create devices to see or detect things beyond our natural senses . . . no other creature on earth does that. Above all, we have evolving, fluid and abstract language. Other animals do communicate in complex manners, but by the anthroplogical definitions there has never been a demonstrated language beyond what humans may be teaching grollias or chimps (ASL), and that is not theirs.
Maybe some day, other species will be capable, but for now we've cornered the market.
Edit: As to being seen as "lesser" . . . that requires the animal to be self-aware, which is pretty rare, I think. Elephants may look down on us, but our housepets see "friend with food!" or "dangerous!" and similar simple territorial things.
i think all living organisms, even virusus when they're "ALIVE and WELL" in their hosts.. are just programmed to behave/live in a specific way... they're less complex than humans (im not sure about this in the cellular level, but behaviorally/psychologically humans are way more advanced than any other creature on this earth)....
) We domesticate things, we build massive structures with artificial products, we clothe ourselves, we create devices to see or detect things beyond our natural senses . . . no other creature on earth does that. Above all, we have evolving, fluid and abstract language. Other animals do communicate in complex manners, but by the anthroplogical definitions there has never been a demonstrated language beyond what humans may be teaching grollias or chimps (ASL), and that is not theirs. Maybe some day, other species will be capable, but for now we've cornered the market.
Edit: As to being seen as "lesser" . . . that requires the animal to be self-aware, which is pretty rare, I think. Elephants may look down on us, but our housepets see "friend with food!" or "dangerous!" and similar simple territorial things.
In my case meres, im considering myself as a "quantum dot" assuming the almost infinite size of the universe
The movie "Planet of the Apes" is also in one way an analogy, where the apes there treated humans as inferior, and "ugly"
) We domesticate things, we build massive structures with artificial products, we clothe ourselves, we create devices to see or detect things beyond our natural senses . . . no other creature on earth does that. Above all, we have evolving, fluid and abstract language. Other animals do communicate in complex manners, but by the anthroplogical definitions there has never been a demonstrated language beyond what humans may be teaching grollias or chimps (ASL), and that is not theirs. Maybe some day, other species will be capable, but for now we've cornered the market.
Edit: As to being seen as "lesser" . . . that requires the animal to be self-aware, which is pretty rare, I think. Elephants may look down on us, but our housepets see "friend with food!" or "dangerous!" and similar simple territorial things.
The only part of us making us more or less superior, is our brain, the rest of our body and its abilites are very average or even poor (remember your back
). But this brain we use - although our intelligence seems to be superior to all other creatures - very blindfold and without any wisdom. Which creature developed criminal power, or kills others without need for food or reproduction? Which animal threatens all others to annihilate himself/all life? Which creature destroys his own environment in the long run and deprives himself of the very basis of his existence (and even knows it, but is doing nothing against it)? Therefore our superiority is very relative. And in an ecological point of view others are more successful, e.g. insects, krill, bacteria, algae. They have much more biomass, species numbers and populate indeed all habitats (also deep sea, hot wells, air, etc etc) and can change the environment for their needs (e.g. oxygen producing algae).
BTW Most of your above points animals are also doing, remember the ants.
) We domesticate things, we build massive structures with artificial products, we clothe ourselves, we create devices to see or detect things beyond our natural senses . . . no other creature on earth does that. Above all, we have evolving, fluid and abstract language. Other animals do communicate in complex manners, but by the anthroplogical definitions there has never been a demonstrated language beyond what humans may be teaching grollias or chimps (ASL), and that is not theirs. Maybe some day, other species will be capable, but for now we've cornered the market.
Edit: As to being seen as "lesser" . . . that requires the animal to be self-aware, which is pretty rare, I think. Elephants may look down on us, but our housepets see "friend with food!" or "dangerous!" and similar simple territorial things.
The only part of us making us more or less superior, is our brain, the rest of our body and its abilites are very average or even poor (remember your back
). But this brain we use - although our intelligence seems to be superior to all other creatures - very blindfold and without any wisdom. Which creature developed criminal power, or kills others without need for food or reproduction? Which animal threatens all others to annihilate himself/all life? Which creature destroys his own environment in the long run and deprives himself of the very basis of his existence (and even knows it, but is doing nothing against it)? Therefore our superiority is very relative. And in an ecological point of view others are more successful, e.g. insects, krill, bacteria, algae. They have much more biomass, species numbers and populate indeed all habitats (also deep sea, hot wells, air, etc etc) and can change the environment for their needs (e.g. oxygen producing algae).
BTW Most of your above points animals are also doing, remember the ants.
Thats true. But isnt it that the traits you mentioned above is also applicable to animals as well? ("Which creature developed criminal power, or kills others without need for food or reproduction? Which animal threatens all others to annihilate himself/all life? Which creature destroys his own environment in the long run and deprives himself of the very basis of his existence (and even knows it, but is doing nothing against it")? i mean its not unique to us humans.
And isnt it unfair if you will compare humans to the vast diverse groups of bacteria, algae etc which populate all kinds of habitats. We all know that these are groups of species that logically would be categorized into various and different adaptive skills.My point anyway is humans as an individual "species".