The earth has a long history of life evolution for billions of years, and the dominant species of the earth is constantly changing at different times. In the Carboniferous period 300 million years ago, insects were dominant on the earth’s land, and that era was called the era of giant insects. Insects are extremely large, and now small dragonflies have wingspans of up to 3 meters at that time.
After the end of the era of insects, the earth ushered in a more glorious era of dinosaurs. At that time, those who run on the ground, swim in the water, and fly in the sky are basically dinosaurs. Dinosaurs are not only numerous, but also spread all over the world, dominating the earth for 160 million years. If it weren’t for 65 million years ago, when an asteroid with a diameter of 10 kilometers hit the earth and triggered a drastic ecological change, which led to the extinction of dinosaurs, then it might not be the era of mainstream mammals. Humans may or cannot become the hegemon of the earth.
After the end of the dinosaur era, mammals began to prosper. After a long period of evolution, some apes in mammals have embarked on the path of intelligent evolution. They are the ancestors of human beings. It was 2.4 million years ago that mankind was finally born, and after more than 2 million years of evolutionary evolution, mankind became Homo sapiens.
Homo sapiens are the ancestors of modern humans. They left Africa 70,000 years ago and began to spread across the world and establish civilization. He entered the age of science and technology hundreds of years ago and opened up a technological civilization. When human civilization is formed, it is when human beings become the ruler of the earth. In a sense, humans are also animals, and they are also large animals.
In the animal world, although the human body is not the most powerful, it also belongs to the middle and upper reaches. Except for animals like tigers, lions, and elephants, other small and medium-sized animals cannot be compared with humans in terms of strength. of. Of course, mankind does not rely on power to dominate the world, but on wisdom.
A friend once brought up such an interesting topic: If humans are reduced to one-tenth of their original size, can they still retain their dominant position? When the size of a person is reduced to one-tenth of the original size, there are advantages and disadvantages. From the perspective of sustainable development, the smaller the size of the human being, the more advantageous it will be.
If the height of an adult is 1.7 meters and the weight is 60 kg, when the body size is reduced ten times, then the height becomes 17 cm and the weight is about 6 kg. Human beings have changed from large animals to small animals only the size of mice. The direct benefit of this is that it can solve the problem of rapid depletion of resources.
As people become smaller, the means of transportation we use to go out will also be smaller, and the daily necessities will become smaller. At this time, the various resources used will be greatly reduced. If the original resources can be used for 100 years, then after a reduction of ten, the use time of these resources will be extended by 10 times, that is, 1,000 years.
You know, for the scientific and technological development of human civilization, resources are the most important. The longer the resources can be used, the greater the potential for the development of human civilization, and the more likely it is to advance to a higher civilization. At the same time, after the human body shrinks by 90%, the food needed will also be greatly reduced, so that the carbon dioxide emissions will also be greatly reduced, and the ecology of the earth will also be greatly improved.
From the perspective of human science and technology development and the sustainable development of human civilization, our size will be reduced to one-tenth of the original size, which will bring many benefits. In this way, human civilization can go further and hopefully become a powerful interstellar civilization. Of course, after the size is reduced by ten times, there are advantages and disadvantages. The disadvantage is that our survival in the wild will face more challenges.
You must know that the earth is a world of life rich in species. In addition to humans, there are more than millions of various creatures. We are now large creatures in human size. But if the size is reduced by ten times, with an average height of 17 cm, then we can only be regarded as tiny animals on the same level as mice in nature.
At that time, there will be very, very few animals that humans can defeat by relying on their strength. Even a mouse may not be able to defeat it by relying on human body strength. But for animals like cats and dogs, we are not opponents with our bare hands, so at that time, “small animals” such as kittens and birds can all become predators of human beings. Going out is dangerous, especially when going to the wild, it is not easy for human beings to survive.
So if something like this really happens, can mankind still retain the hegemony of the earth? The answer is yes. We must know that mankind’s dominance of the earth does not rely on physical strength, but on wisdom. Wisdom has made us a technological civilization. With powerful technological equipment and relying on these powerful technological products, even creatures that are hundreds or thousands of times taller than humans can be easily wiped out.
Here, some friends may say that human beings can become intelligent creatures because we have a relatively large brain capacity. If the body size is reduced by ten times, then the brain capacity will also be reduced by ten times. At that time, are we still intelligent lives? In fact, many people have a misunderstanding about why human beings are intelligent beings. It is believed that the larger the brain capacity, it will become an intelligent life, but this is not the case.
In the terrestrial biological world, human brain capacity is not the largest, and there are many animals whose brain capacity is larger than that of human beings. But they are not intelligent creatures. The real factor that determines intelligent creatures is the ratio of brain capacity to body. The ratio of human brain to body is about 2-2.3%. This ratio is far less than that of other animals. The ratio is the key to human beings becoming intelligent life, not the size of the brain.
Even if the size of human beings shrinks ten times, the ratio of the brain to the body will not change, so we are still smart and intelligent life, and will be the overlord of the earth. There is no fixed value for the size of intelligent life. Although we have not yet discovered any extraterrestrial intelligent life, we can also imagine that the height and weight of extraterrestrial intelligent life may be very large compared to human beings. difference.
For example, some extraterrestrial intelligent life forms may appear to humans to be insignificant, and their aircraft may be as big as human children’s toys. Some extraterrestrial intelligent life bodies may be as high as tens of meters in height, in our view they are giants. Their aircraft will also be very large, so the bigger the alien civilization, the better?
For an intelligent civilization, the smaller the size of the living body, the easier it is to become a powerful advanced civilization. The reason we said earlier is that the smaller the resources consumed by the initial development, the longer the sustainable development. When a civilization becomes an advanced civilization, even if it is a very small alien life in our eyes, we dare not provoke it.
We must know that the power of technological weapons does not depend on the size of their heads. The size of a nuclear bomb can easily destroy a city. One gram of antimatter is so small that it can produce terrible power. It is possible that a small antimatter weapon can easily blast a planet. It can be seen that if the size of human beings is really reduced by ten times, it will be great news for us who have entered the age of technology.
Unfortunately, this is just a matter of our dreams, and the human body shape is unlikely to have such a big change. This is a rule established by the natural laws of the earth, and it is also a rule formed on the evolutionary path of life on earth. It is impossible to easily make huge changes.