Top of the Food Chain?

Human identity is largely attached to the concept that we have escaped the food chain. Thanks to the development of technologies such as cars and guns, the modern human no longer lives in constant fear of lions or saber tooth tigers. We are not generally concerned that our commute home might end with us becoming another creature's dinner. We have used our intelligence to manipulate the surface of earth to suit our needs for survival. We have constructed massive cities in which animals that could easily tear us to pieces in a one-on-one battle, could not possibly challenge us. We have developed weapons to defend us from any animal we know of. We have even devised traps capable of catching dangerous animals without our presence being required. While all of this is true, does that mean that humans are actually out of the food chain? Can anyone prove without a shadow of a doubt that homo sapiens are alone on the top of the food chain? On this page I will try to assess the humbling possibility that humans might be farther down the food chain than most of us like to believe. Could there exist life out there that perceives humans the way we perceive chimps? 

For perspective, let’s start by considering the average elephant. Elephant’s travel in tight-knit packs and contain more intellect and emotional intelligence than most humans understand. They grieve the loss of loved ones and have even been known to rescue and assist members of other species. One example of this complex behavior was recently recorded when an elephant helped carry an injured lion cub with its trunk for miles across the African Savannah (pictured below). Elephants have even been known to rescue drowning humans and other distressed members of the animal kingdom. In their environment, these wise creatures are kings. Even lions know to steer clear of an elephant unless it is freshly born, ill, or severely injured. In fact, elephants are classified as having no natural predators. With this in mind, it is quite possible that the average elephant thinks of themselves quite highly. Without a complete understanding of the creatures inhabiting earth, it would be understandable for an elephant to think he had escaped the food chain. And yet, we know that this belief could not be further from the truth. In reality, elephants are endangered by a whole range of human activity. Humans hunt them for their ivory and some assholes even shoot them down just for a photograph. However, if you were an elephant walking the planes and you had never directly seen one of your species shot down by strange machines how would you know? If you hadn’t gone to the local market and seen an ivory tusk for sale how could you possibly conceptualize your real place in the cosmic food-chain?

If the elephant metaphor isn't working for you let's shift gears to dolphins. Dolphins are another incredibly intelligent creature. Their brain is actually considerably bigger than ours. They spend their entire lives underwater and most dolphins will never come in direct contact with a human. However, many dolphins have been 'abducted' by humans and now live in human created environments like SeaWorld (which is bullshit imo). Anyways, the dolphins in captivity are acutely aware that humans exist but what about the majority of dolphins that have never seen a human before? 

 So far I’ve briefly gone over how humans treat animals in the wild and how that behavior might apply to us in a larger scale. We hunt plenty of animals but let’s also consider how we treat the animals we’ve managed to domesticate.Humans have used the process of breeding and genetic modifications to manipulate other creatures to our liking. In some cases, such as cats and dogs, these methods can be seen as relatively harmless (except bulldogs, they can’t breathe and that’s not cool). We like certain aesthetic features and so we breed these creatures to fill out our ideal vision of a house pet. However, we also modify sheep, cows, pigs, and almost all the farm animals that help sustain the global human population. We want eggs to be a certain size and bacon to have a certain taste so we play god and take matters into our own hands. Is it possible that more intelligent beings may have played a role in modifying human genetics throughout our history? Could modern man be the result of thousands of years of genetic manipulation and tinkering? Consider the average poodle. Do you think it is acutely aware of the fact that it's form is the direct result of human engineering? Do you think it goes through it's average day thinking that it is the creation of another intelligent species? I highly doubt it and I think it's worth questioning whether that might not also apply to us. There are millions of people that believe some form of god(s) modified the human genome and engineered our current form.

If you are already rolling your eyes I'm sorry but shit is about to get a little weirder. What is the best way for a species to cement their control over another intelligent species? You would need to control their leaders. It would be very difficult for a bunch of scaley aliens to convince the entire human race to go along with their agenda if we could see that they were not one of us. Which brings me to one crazy possibility. There are many that believe political leaders worldwide report back to a race of advanced reptilians. The extent of their relationship is heavily contended. Some believe that our leaders have struck a deal with these reptilians to cement their personal power. Others speculate that some leaders are actually reptilians themselves, merely disguising themselves as humans to fool the general population. The point of this particular page is not to prove anything. I don’t know and I’d be lying if I said I did. My main goal is just to raise the question and hopefully open some minds out there to new possibilities. It is time for humanity to come together and take destiny into our own hands. 

“If you don’t have a plan you will become part of someone else’s” – Terrence McKenna.