#human instinct

One time when I was a kid, I had a science teacher with a snake as a class pet, and said snake was almost done shedding. There was one little bit of dried skin stuck to its face and I was like, “would it hurt him if I pulled that off?” And the teacher said, “yes it actually could, it’s probably still attached to living skin if it hasn’t come off yet” and I was like “oh, sorry,” and he said, “that’s okay, you were just wanting to do the primate thing.” And damn, that’s such an accurate descriptor.

(SPOILER FOR MOVIE BELOW)

That moment when Grace's instinct just takes over after succesfully unscrewing Rocky's message jar, and he sniffs the ALIEN JAR with ALIEN CHEMICALS with a smug grin before hilariously fearing for his life (the "oh nooOOOO" got me).

Idk man, peak human instincts taking over. Makes you wonder if that was a part of his habit back on Earth.

Maybe he likes bringing a hot drink in his tumbler and he always inhales the smell when he opens the lid.

Na'vi can see in the dark like cats, they're eyes are highly reflective like cats. So, it has to set off every prey sense in a humans system when they're patrolling at night and their flashlights catch that gleam. Humans can't see shit at night so there's no way they know what's looking back at them, is it a deer, Viperwolf, or is it a na'vi.

Can you imagine Tamtey learning how unnerving the humans find this when she's a child and later using it to her advantage as an adult. Imagine her during joint missions with So'lek, Etuwa, or someone else, standing in front of someone or even a whole patrol unit covered by the foliage, except for her eyes. Then when they freeze and start to raised their weapons they just start getting picked off from behind, by the time they look back to take her out she's gone.

Or sometimes she'll let them catch a glimpse only to be gone when they do a double take or she'll slowly fade back into the dark or behind some other plant only to never emerge from the other side.

I think aliens would find it disturbing that most baby animals on earth resemble each other, and even more so that this is the most effective survival tactic evolution has ever created.

Like not only does it effect humans deeply, to the point where we made dogs stay puppy-like and most of us view a fawn differently than a buck when it comes to symbolism in art and fiction. It also fools other apex predators. It is more effective than mimicking a venomous/poison creature, more than teeth, horns, and claws, more than speed, stamina, or strength. Not even human logic can really get past it. And honestly we don't want to. Hurting animals is cruel but a BABY animal, that's evil. You see someone kick a 100 pound full grown dog and assume it's self defense, bur kicking a puppy? Evil. All babies are baby on earth. This instinct is so strong some predators will adopt and care for prey animals if they encounter them after giving birth or after losing a baby. Cats are the kings of cross spesies adoption ( other than humans )

Anyway, most viltrumite are immune to this. But I think not when it comes to human kids.

I think if more of them had been sent to earth, they would have felt that instinct for the very first time. This soft squishy thing that should be disgusting and Is so weak it should bring shame, doesn't? They have no defense for it. They don't even feel that with their own spesies. ( tho that could be culture as much as evolution. Nature AND nurture but I think humans would override it) like that " everything is baby" instinct is contagious.

And you know how I know? It took ONE person at work to say baby spiders were cute for everyone to suddenly see them completely differently. We are now emotionally attached to the spiders. Just one of is feeling maternal twords one triggered that in the rest of us. I swear it was like pharamones or something. I think it would work like that on the viltrumites.

They'd have no idea how to deal with these feelings

I personally think it's fascinating that we have evidence to suggest that even millions of years ago, we cared for our sick, elderly, and disabled, even though logically that would have slowed families down and made things harder.

Humans are and have always been social creatures that run on empathy and love (y'know when things like racism and capitalism aren't introduced)

We have fossils of people who had developmental and intellectual disabilities who were clearly cared for by their families. We didn't care that they were different, and we didn't care that they may need more attention or resources, they were our loved ones. They were our children, our siblings, our parents or grandparents. Maybe they weren't related at all, and someone just saw someone who needed help.

We have fossils from people who had broken bones, who likely would have died on their own had they not been cared for by others.

We have always run on love and empathy and compassion.

I can't help but think that when things like currencies were invented and we started keeping resources from people unless they could give us something in return, it started to shift more people toward being crueler and greedy.

Maybe it's even the reason for, "I hate X group of people because their presence threatens my chances at getting currency, which threatens my chances to feed myself or my family," even if it was untrue and irrational.

I think hoarding resources and making them harder to attain may have contributed to the growth in hatred, greed, and cruelty.

I think if we were just kind and shared openly and cared for each other, things would get better and people might stop being so hateful and cruel.

The Human Instinct- Stoned Guitar (Heavy Psych, Hard Rock, Acid Rock) Released: October 1970 [AIR/ Pye Records] Producer(s): Maurice Greer