Are We Stupid?

by Shapol Mohamed

Humans have always thought of themselves as smart and intelligent species. We have been wrong.

Imagine a world without us humans. It would be a world where the environment thrives and our planet is safe from man-made problems. The earth would be free from wars, free from suffering caused by chauvinism, free from humans endangering animals, free from cruel farms. The world would be better.

Now imagine a world without bees, the world would be endangered. Bees pollinate and without them, three-quarters of our food will not be available which will cause mass starvation across the earth.

Does that mean bees are more intelligent than us?

Yes and no.

The brain to body mass ratio of a bee is 1:5 whilst for humans, it is only 1:40. This makes bees ridiculously smart for their size. Bees with tiny brains solve advanced mathematical problems to find the most efficient way of traveling between two sites. They are masters of mazes. These tiny creatures that we are so afraid of also have short-term and long-term memory that last from days to entire life spans.

However, we can argue that humans are still smarter even if our brain to body mass ratio isn’t that good. We have a big brain that is able to do solve all sorts of problems. In fact, we can argue that we are so smart that we have become stupid; it is us being smart that has bought us to this destination of destroying our planet.

You could also argue that humans are smart but selfish. After all, that is the reason behind our xenophobia and all the wars we have caused. Again, you could argue that is what defines stupidity.

No one else knows better than the astronomer Carl Sagan, how stupid we are. His images of a dot places this into context for us. He explained that the image shows earth, a dot suspended in a beam of sunlight. 

The earth is a very small stage in a vast cosmic arena.Think of the rivers of blood spilled by all of those emperors, generals, and soldiers so that in glory and triumph they could become the momentary masters of a fraction of a dot. Think of the endless cruelties visited by the inhabitants of one corner of this pixel on the scarcely indistinguishable inhabitants of some other corner. How frequent their misunderstandings. How eager they are to kill one another. How fervent their hatred.

Our self-importance, the illusion that we have some privileged position in the universe is challenged by this insignificant dot.