I love a good HFY / Humans Are Space Orks post, and I think one element of Humans weβre sleeping on is an instinctual understanding of ballistics.
I mean, I get why itβs not as popular here on Tumblr dot com, given itβs kinda a jock/military adjacent thing, but like. Our ability to just. Pick up a small, firm object, judge its internal inertia and mass by holding it for a bit, and then flinging it with the kind of accuracy and speed Humans are capable of is.
Like thereβs another post about how Humans in an alien zoo would probably be breaking out constantly, since we consider escape rooms to be a fun courtship ritual, but
imagine the aliens who are designing the enclosures just so happen to pick up, say, a devoted amateur baseball pitcher. Not even a legend by any means, just somebody whoβs practiced with intention. And one day theyβre watching her pass some time and blow off some steam by doing some pitching practice and they realize to their mounting horror that this gal can turn literally anything she can wrap her digits around into a ballistic weapon.
A human left to hunt for it's own food will find a straight-ish stick and fashion it into a type of tool to aid their hunt. Some humans will simply sharpen the stick, but more enterprising ones will affix some sort of blade fashioned from rock or bone. This tool vastly improves their reach, allowing them to kill prey without putting themselves in much danger of counterattack. Even more alarmingly, we've recorded instances of humans using their forelimbs to launch these tools with incredible speed and accuracy, managing to kill their prey from several meters away. Even flight is no protection from these projectiles, as several observation drones have been destroyed by humans launching them. It is unknown if the humans thought the drones were edible or just resent being observed.
