Genetically, modern humans are almost identical to our ancient counterparts; it’s not a difference in evolution that has allowed us to grasp continuously more complex concepts, it’s the accumulated knowledge that we have gathered and passed on. Without being saturated with that information from a young age, a person would only be as intelligent and knowledgeable as humans were well over 100,000 years ago.
Sure, yinglets may not have the same capacity for intellectual development as humans (as far as anyone knows), but the bigger issue is that their society has only recently moved out of the stage of basic survival, so they’ve hardly had the resources and manpower (yingletpower) to assign to things like studying and archiving the results.
Also, the problem that the elders are worried about is a common one, which has occurred on Earth every time that a more developed culture has met a less developed one. “Borrowing” things from the more advanced culture would allow the less developed one to develop quicker, but almost always results in their society becoming more like the one that developed the information in question.
I think if I were turned into a yinglet, the weirdest thing for me would be how enormous my eyeballs were.
Along with the realization that my brain is now a drastically different shape and size. I probably won’t be able to feel that though, so the eyes would steal the focus.
That might be the worst part of an uneven transformation like Kassen’s. If the brain cavity shrank before the brain did.
Though I suppose the resulting brain damage might help transition a human into yinglet society.
Yeah, that is a serious difference in perception! A much larger overall visual area, and a smaller skull which places them closer together than human eyes, contributes to making things seem much larger than before.
Well at least Kass won’t starve at the enclave, who know’s she might eat better then when she was human.
I look forward to hearing Vizlet’s plans for Kass now that she know’s Kass used to be human.
And I think you did a good job showing a younger Vizlet, she looks pretty good.
Yeah, he’s going to need some education on what now constitutes “edible,” since he didn’t have an entire childhood as a yinglet to stick things in his mouth and figure out what works.
We see so far not because we are great; but because we stand on the shoulders of giants. C. S. Lewis and others have said this over and over; but maybe we need to hear it fom a Yinglet.
Very appropriate! That’s exactly what Vizlet’s illustrating here, minus the phrasing. Her species is in a fine situation to illustrate that point.
I could not fathom the idea of a tank or machine gun in the 15th century. However, if I went back to the middle ages with the knowledge, I could advance them by bringing prebuilt steps. Humanity builds a staircase of knowledge. So, someone with future knowledge can toss prebuilt steps onto it.
Yes, but how much of HIGH YINGLET CUISINE is only so because they’re immune to food poisoning? Also, how much of HYC gets the yinglets high? Does this result in more property damage than usual?
All this and more, on The Yinglet who Came for Dinner.
Not to be confused with another wildly popular yet somewhat inappropriate episode, “The Yinglet who Became Dinner” ^/^,http://pezwolf.deviantart.com/art/Thanksgiving-Feast-596920408
Well it may just be a coincidence that some stuff that’s SUPER TOXIC also tastes great before it kills you…
Case in point: Pufferfish is insanely toxic, but if just enough of the poison is left in properly prepared fugu it only affects the nerves in the tastebuds, giving a tingle that is reportedly extremely pleasant. Modern fugu chefs tend to play it safe though.
I know I’m posting long after the fact but I just wanted to say I noticed the ergonomically designed yinglet chairs.
I did not. 🙂
Room for tails!
Cultural/scientific breakthroughs tend to accelerate over time, at least up to a point. So ironically the thing to do to ensure the minimum amount of borrowing is to grab as much from the humans and others as possible *right now* and then develop on their own from there for a while, before the gap widens.
But they don’t have a way to know that.
I wonder. Is the matriarch sterile? That would be an explanation to how she got the chance to learn from humans.
Vizlet actually does have children.
Only one path after learning this: yinglet public school!
IT TASTES SO GOOD
about knowledge:
yinglets will get as intellignet as humans for theses reasons:
1. that pyramid: yinglets are lower but the growth is higher: the yinglet’s height is 2, so they need 3 to go to the next height, the humans’s height is 7 and need 8 to reach the next height, the further the height, the higher the cost.
2.yinglet’s knowledge comes mainly from humans, but the humans, the onther way around does not have anything to learn from.
Clean food and water and eating properly has also led to our sharp increase in intellect. Like how we don’t use tasty and sturdy lead any more.
Poor Lippie. She looks like she needs a hug.
Is it “wise” or “wize”?
“We stand on the shoulders of giants”
– Stephen Hawkings