Stuff They Don't Want You To Know What Comes After Humans? Chapter Two: The Next Dominant Species
Oct 10, 2025
What happens if humans disappear? Explore intriguing successor species like corvids, elephants, and even octopuses, with discussions on intelligence and adaptability. Delve into the eerie potential of fungi as global dominators and the implications of artificial intelligence inheriting the Earth. The hosts contemplate whether future societies will focus on survival or pursue art and exploration. Finally, they tackle the central dilemma of curiosity versus growth in a post-human civilization.
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Brains Need Dexterous Hands
- Corvids and raccoons combine high intelligence with manual dexterity, making them strong candidates for technological development.
- Physical manipulation ability matters as much as raw brainpower for building tools and technology.
Ocean Intelligence Meets Physical Limits
- Marine mammals like dolphins and whales show high intelligence but lack manipulatory appendages, which constrains technological trajectories.
- Social or cooperative strategies could partially substitute for individual tool use but face big environmental limits.
Domesticate Octopuses For Fins' Sake
- Matt imagines cetaceans domesticating octopuses to gain manipulators for technological tasks.
- The hosts use the idea to explore cross-species cooperation as an evolutionary workaround.
