Forword Motion

    This is kind of a continuation of my last post with a more real life perspective. With the right mindset a person can learn to understand the languages and social behaviors of many types of people and cross deep social boundaries, we as a species are amazing communicators, but what is interesting to me though, and hat I will be talking about, is how learning to read the body languages of other species could potentially better enable us to understand our own species’ thinking and social cues. 

   I’m in no way the first person to realize that caring for a pet or animal helps build empathy in people, this fact has been taken advantage of by parents, schools, prisons, and therapist alike, so it’s pretty common knowledge. What interests me in this common knowledge is the question of why that is the way it is, and if some animals are better than others to use for building empathy. I personally have worked with a wide variety of domestic animals; goats, horses, dogs, cats, chickens, cattle, and rabbits, to name the ones that i can think of, and in my modest opinion, horses and rabbits (and sometimes feral cats), are the best animals for learning about oneself and growing your ability to show and feel empathy towards others and increasing your ability to catch social cues from other people. (Prey animals in general seem to be the most productive options). 

These animals are the best for this because they are the hardest to understand. Humans are predators, these animals in question are prey, therefore you cannot immediately expect them to trust or like you, therefore you have to observe them and meet them halfway. This is where empathy building comes in, you as a human have to put yourself in the perspective of a small frightened creature (or large, easily startled creature), and mentally work to modify your behavior to seem less predatory and to try to emotionally connect with them by thinking on their level. This is a challenge both for the thinking and feeling parts of your mind, and by dealing with these kinds of animals you are forcing your mind and emotions to grow and improve. One must think things like ‘how would i feel if a total stranger grabbed me and tried to pick me up?’ or ‘what would i want to do if a stranger tried to hug me?’  and with these thoughts you can analyze and predict the responses and needs of the creature you are trying to befriend. 

Now on the flip-side of this train of thought is how this applies to humans and human interactions. Well, the same skills you used to gain the trust of a totally different species is just as effective on one’s own species. Humans are more complex than the animals I mentioned above, so it is more difficult to acquire this skill by starting out with analyzing human behavior. Animals aren’t dishonest like humans are, and any action they do is easily traceable to either a feeling of fear or safety. Humans work in the same way a rabbit would in this, all emotions and reactions stem from feelings of fear or security, humans just possess a larger arsenal of reactions than a rabbit does, The important thing however is that you learn to look for it in yourself and others. You can predict the reactions of a person by understanding what they react to, what the reaction is, and which of the two basic emotions is the reaction coming from, then you can see what someone is feeling with even the subtlest of social cues. Eventually as one gets to know and experience more types of people one can inventory and catalog the different reactions from different personality types and better understand how to put yourselves in their position and then meet them halfway.

Sorry for the long rambling post

Kay I know the humans are weird and space orcs thing is old and pretty much beat into the ground, but there has been one thing no one mentions that is really cool, weird pet bonding......

Now I'm not talking about “fatal attractions” and animal collecting like many people before me have, but two-way bonds between animals and people that are extremely unnatural.(btw not in the creepy way)

now I was reading a book for children, (published in the 1980′s) that gives you step by step details in how to befriend fearful and borderline wild animals like rabbits, mice, hamsters, rats (both wild and domestic), and an assortment of birds. and this is where the idea hit.

we as humans have an uncanny ability to bond with other species by manipulating, learning, and copying their psychology, and this an ability we have even as CHILDREN. and not just with animals that are already social, but furiously solitary ones as well. 

The right kind of person trains and befriends raptors, like eagles and falcons (Which are birds that will eat their own siblings and fight to the death for territory), and gains these nonsocial animals’ trusts and this causes a naturally non social animal to suddenly engage in social activities. Think about it! the right human can cause an animal to go against their species’ biological and social wiring for the sake of returning affection to that said human. The mink is another good example, this animal engages in cannibalism, and doesn’t even create lasting social bonds with its mother, offspring, or litter mates, and will often come close to killing potential mates just to see how strong they are! AND THESE ANIMALS WILL FORM DEEP BONDS WITH HUMANS! engaging in grooming and other group behaviors they would have normally forgotten by the time they were a few weeks old with their chosen friend. 

Now here is my point, what if aliens see this ability and desire as some sort of super-ability on par with telepathy and telekinesis. And wind up using humans as the main diplomats to greet new species because of it. or thought we were terrifying simply because we can train ourselves to read the body language and social interactions of every and any living creature. Making their non verbal communications totally exposed to human understanding......

That in my opinion is cool...