There are some animals you wish were smarter so that you could truly be bffs – like your dog or cat, for instance, or maybe your bird (though most birds are at least as smart as my toddlers).
Then there are animals you definitely wouldn’t want to see with human smarts, because then there likely wouldn’t be any more humans. I mean, the obvious one is apes, because they’ve made multiple moves about that, but I also think wasps, snakes, or pretty much any predator that’s bigger than us would also have to go on that list.
These 15 Redditors have some out-of-the-box ideas that will get your gears grinding, though, and make you look at a topsy-turvy world in a whole new light.
15. I mean they already scare us and they’re so small and dumb.
Spiders.
All of those legs and eyes! Ugh.
14. I think they essentially made a movie about this, too.
Probably ants.
There’s so many of them working together that they could become our new evil overlords.
13. Maybe we could all just get along?
To be honest I think one of the reasons why we have to consider some animals “pests” and “lesser” beings is because we can’t reason with them. We can’t make them understand consequences and set boundaries, even if the boundaries are arbitrary and in the spirit of “if you do this we will retaliate like that.” We can’t make them understand that even in just their own perspective they will benefit with some level of planning and cooperation.
If another animal group gained this cognitive ability, I don’t think it would be outside our human capability to work better with them than purely against them, and I think any intelligent species that has to live so close beside us would also learn that cooperation is in their better interest as well.
That said, the biggest damage that I think we humans would suffer from should a species suddenly change would be the ones that force us to change the most. So an animal that already lives around people but isn’t treated as family. I think there would be some hellish moral quandaries if rats or mice suddenly became a race we had to care for/about on an individual level.
12. They just need to figure out a couple of things!
Flies.
If they were clever enough to leave through an open window they would be unstoppable!
11. This would pretty much be my worst nightmare.
Yellow jackets.
Cunts with wings AND human intelligence
10. Just thinking about this totally freaks me out.
It’s amazing that nobody has said rats.
Rats are EVERYWHERE there are people. If rats wanted to they could destroy our infrastructure with only their teeth. Mobile, sneaky, small, breed like crazy, and ubiquitous. What are birds or monkeys REALLY going to do to civilization? Monkeys are super rare in the world. Birds aren’t really that strong all they have is mobility, really. We have ways of dealing with birds.
But rats? They’re universal. Once they figure out rat poison they’ll be nearly unstoppable. They’re mobility, unlike birds, gives them coverage. They easily outnumber the feline population and once they learn that all they need to do is swarm the cats then it’s game over.
The only reason they aren’t much worse of a problem is because they don’t have the intelligence to utilize their insane numbers.
9. With very good reason.
Cows.
They would have a personal vendetta against the majority of humans.
8. That’s way too many legs.
Centipedes.
If they assembled they can create hyperpedes.
Who knows what they can do with that pelage.
7. This would definitely be the end of the human race.
This is easy: monkeys/apes.
Opposing thumbs – check.
Superhuman strength – check.
Shit flinging tendencies – that’s a big check.
Monkeys are already awful and bad. Bad monkeys. Smart monkeys would be a nightmare.
6. If only they could learn to breathe outside the water.
Octopuses are already really clever.
And there’s some indications that under proper conditions, they may become more social; i.e., learning from and teaching each other.
But could you imagine if crows had human like cognitive abilities? They can already learn, count, follow patterns, attack, and remember faces.
5. This should definitely have been toward the top of the list.
G E E S E.
Those fuckers are mean enough right now… imagine if they got smart!
4. Ahahahaha… that last part.
Snakes.
Imagine if they had the ability to go on Expedia and book their own airline tickets…
3. They like to curse so it might not be all bad.
Parrots.
There’s the obvious they can hold objects and fly, their speech capability is what would set them ahead.
While other animals like apes and reptiles would spent their intelligence in fighting each other, parrots can quickly talk it out and realise that the real enemy is us…..
Wouldn’t be surprised if the peekaboos and the parrot will quickly turn into “look at me, I’m the captain now.”
2. I do not like that, Sam I Am.
Bugs in general.
They could all team up on us and wipe out half of the human race.
1. Idk I think they would probably just leave us alone.
If cats had the intelligence and ability to text you, they wouldn’t.
I think humans don’t stop to think about how good we’ve got it here at the top, at least in the brains department, often enough!
What would you add to this list and why? Let’s chat about it in the comments!
