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I've been watching too many Baldur's Gate Youtube videos on how to build a character, and one guy talks about the "power spike" when your character gets a parti

I've been watching too many Baldur's Gate Youtube videos on how to build a character, and one guy talks about the "power spike" when your character gets a particularly useful ability, like an extra bonus action per turn. The biggest power spike of genus Homo may have been attaching a rock to the end of a stick. The spear changed our ancestors from sub-apex prey to predators ready to take on a lion in its cave. From meat to masters of all we surveyed. The next power surge of that magnitude may have been nukes. Yet it couldn't save neanderthalensis from sapiens.

breakfastduck 3y ago
I think the gun was probably a big one, prior to nukes.
- stronglikedan 3y ago
  A bullet is just a really fast spear.
  - deleted 3y ago
    [deleted]
  - bitxbitxbitcoin 3y ago
    A really fast javelin (throwing spear), technically.
- soufron 3y ago
  Provided that the nukes really exist of course :)
appplication 3y ago
> Yet it couldn't save neanderthalensis from sapiens. This is what I don’t understand. Neanderthals were strong and smart. Did Homo sapiens kill them outright I.e. war? Or was it more of a outcompete and outbreed situation?
- Swizec 3y ago
  > Or was it more of a outcompete and outbreed situation? There’s a lot of evidence we more or less absorbed the neanderthal population. Old school tribal genocide style – you win the war/battle, kill the men, take their wives. We don’t know if that’s exactly how it happened, but it stands to reason that pre-historic tribal warfare wasn’t much different than the more recent tribal warfare we do have records about. 1% to 4% of human DNA, for people with non-African backgrounds, is Neanderthal: https://humanorigins.si.edu/evidence/genetics/ancient-dna-and-neanderthals https://humanorigins.si.edu/evidence/genetics/ancient-dna-an... (cmd+f for “interbreeding”) Mind you the whole “take their wives” aspect of human warfare is, uhm, pretty well documented: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wartime_sexual_violence https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wartime_sexual_violence
- bee_rider 3y ago
  It must have been both, right? In the sense that higher populations would tend to be helpful when fights started, better resources lead to higher population, and winning fights leads to better access to resources.
- antisthenes 3y ago
  Maybe the cave lions united together and hunted down all Neanderthals :)
- marcosdumay 3y ago
  AFAIK, there is a lot of evidence for climate change being a very large factor for neanderthals disappearing.
- precompute 3y ago
  Neanderthals were built for the winter and for the colder periods of the earth's weather. Cold temperatures would also lead to smaller group sizes. It then seems likely that Neanderthal groups were picked off one by one by large groups of homo sapiens. If you have a 1:100 or even a 1:10 numbers advantage (when you opponent's group doesn't exceed ~80 people), it often doesn't matter how advanced or smart your opponent is. They're going to get flattened no matter what they do. Bloodlust combined with very large group sizes usually leads to lower individual quality but there's a limit to how many one guy could pick off. After the 15th or the 20th guy you're likely to get hit a couple of times, no matter how skilled you are. And after that you're done for, no strongman can stand even a 10-man dogpile.
BurningFrog 3y ago
I'm 2.3% Neanderthal. We're still around!

breakfastduck 3y ago

I think the gun was probably a big one, prior to nukes.

stronglikedan 3y ago
A bullet is just a really fast spear.
- deleted 3y ago
  [deleted]
- bitxbitxbitcoin 3y ago
  A really fast javelin (throwing spear), technically.
soufron 3y ago
Provided that the nukes really exist of course :)

appplication 3y ago

> Yet it couldn't save neanderthalensis from sapiens. This is what I don’t understand. Neanderthals were strong and smart. Did Homo sapiens kill them outright I.e. war? Or was it more of a outcompete and outbreed situation?

Swizec 3y ago
> Or was it more of a outcompete and outbreed situation? There’s a lot of evidence we more or less absorbed the neanderthal population. Old school tribal genocide style – you win the war/battle, kill the men, take their wives. We don’t know if that’s exactly how it happened, but it stands to reason that pre-historic tribal warfare wasn’t much different than the more recent tribal warfare we do have records about. 1% to 4% of human DNA, for people with non-African backgrounds, is Neanderthal: https://humanorigins.si.edu/evidence/genetics/ancient-dna-and-neanderthals https://humanorigins.si.edu/evidence/genetics/ancient-dna-an... (cmd+f for “interbreeding”) Mind you the whole “take their wives” aspect of human warfare is, uhm, pretty well documented: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wartime_sexual_violence https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wartime_sexual_violence
bee_rider 3y ago
It must have been both, right? In the sense that higher populations would tend to be helpful when fights started, better resources lead to higher population, and winning fights leads to better access to resources.
antisthenes 3y ago
Maybe the cave lions united together and hunted down all Neanderthals :)
marcosdumay 3y ago
AFAIK, there is a lot of evidence for climate change being a very large factor for neanderthals disappearing.
precompute 3y ago
Neanderthals were built for the winter and for the colder periods of the earth's weather. Cold temperatures would also lead to smaller group sizes. It then seems likely that Neanderthal groups were picked off one by one by large groups of homo sapiens. If you have a 1:100 or even a 1:10 numbers advantage (when you opponent's group doesn't exceed ~80 people), it often doesn't matter how advanced or smart your opponent is. They're going to get flattened no matter what they do. Bloodlust combined with very large group sizes usually leads to lower individual quality but there's a limit to how many one guy could pick off. After the 15th or the 20th guy you're likely to get hit a couple of times, no matter how skilled you are. And after that you're done for, no strongman can stand even a 10-man dogpile.

BurningFrog 3y ago

I'm 2.3% Neanderthal. We're still around!