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[LegacyCWAL]

The way I see it, look at where we are in the food chain: we're up there with lions and tigers and bears.  Especially bears.  But all those critters got where they are by having lots of speed, strength, senses, and natural weaponry like claws and fangs.  We're up there due to our brains.

Our biggest advantage is our brain.  Put a human up against a tiger, and you'll wind up with a well-fed tiger.  But when that human makes a spear, it becomes a much tougher fight for the tiger.  When a bunch of spear-wielding humans use their brainpower to coordinate an effort that puts even wolves to shame, that tiger is seriously fucked, no matter how strong, fast, and pointy it is.

And the versatility is related to what you mentioned, Mephansteras: we're really fairly pathetic for a top-tier predator, but we can recognize rivals' weaknesses, and have just enough to exploit those weaknesses.  We can outlast a cheetah, outrange a polar bear, out-quick-kill a wolf, and outfish damn well near anything.

[Duke 2.0]

we're the weakest, slowest, blindest, and deafest creatures on Earth.

Actually, humans have some of the best overall sight. "Weakest, slowest, and deafest" isn't correct either, but "weaker, slower, and deafer" is.

Also, there are a lot of things worse than us.  Snails, for example.  Bats, although they fly and have better hearing.  Slothes are another example of something worse.  Not to mention, someone really applying maximum brain power could overcome just about any creature.  Even a whale.

Humans are pretty neat, actually. I read an interesting article once that did a 'humans vs animals' Olympics thing years ago. Basically looking at how humans perform in the Olympics compared to the best animals for the task. Fish for swimming, cheetas for sprints, etc. And while the verdict was that humans wouldn't win any of those events, humans were the only species that could actually compete in all of those events. And it's that flexibility that allows humans to do so well in the world. Not the best at anything (other then tool use), but the ability to do just about anything to some degree.

 Wasn't that the show where they pitted a couple-dozen midgets against an elephant to pull a jet plane?

[Sergius]

I read somewhere that while the natural predators would kill their prey, such as herbivores, they relied on short burst of speed and surprise, but the actual chance of success was pretty low. OTOH, when humans did the same they mostly just out-jogged the prey to death.

[Mephansteras]

Humans are pretty neat, actually. I read an interesting article once that did a 'humans vs animals' Olympics thing years ago. Basically looking at how humans perform in the Olympics compared to the best animals for the task. Fish for swimming, cheetas for sprints, etc. And while the verdict was that humans wouldn't win any of those events, humans were the only species that could actually compete in all of those events. And it's that flexibility that allows humans to do so well in the world. Not the best at anything (other then tool use), but the ability to do just about anything to some degree.

 Wasn't that the show where they pitted a couple-dozen midgets against an elephant to pull a jet plane?

Nah, this was a popular science article or something, I think.

[Granite26]

So far as I'm concerned, we're winning the only competition that really matters...

[Techhead]

Total world domination?

[Kogan Loloklam]

You human defeatists!
"We're Average."
Bullcrap. When was the last time you saw a monkey or ant "hide" a stash of food visibly four times in a row to lure the thief into complaciency when they kill themselves up with the boobytrapped fifth?

Or even hide a small stash to convince the others that they found all your food and stop searching for the "real" stash?

We are UNMATCHED in the entire world in our ability to decieve. unmatched. In the world!

Talk about how we are average. We got all the other creatures in the world beat with just that. That alone gives us an edge over every other animal in the world. Add "intellegence" on top of that though...

(Edit: Add intellegence on top of that, and we get some people thinking it's a good idea to rename fish sea kittens. As such, the treasonous "Sea Kitten" plot has to be thwarted. Thwart PETA's plot! Eat the bread! EAT THE BREAD!)

[Sergius]

We should all tell PETA that from now on, cabbages are to be named "green babies".

Carrots can be named "cuddly pointy mice", and we can name potatoes "earth fetuses".

[Kogan Loloklam]

...
Carrots can be named "cuddly pointy mice",
...

Why not Dirt kittens?
You meat eaters get to have all the fun. I can't eat Kitten, only horribly maim and torture it.

[Bujold]

Our biggest advantage is our brain.  Put a human up against a tiger, and you'll wind up with a well-fed tiger.  But when that human makes a spear, it becomes a much tougher fight for the tiger.  When a bunch of spear-wielding humans use their brainpower to coordinate an effort that puts even wolves to shame, that tiger is seriously fucked, no matter how strong, fast, and pointy it is.

And that advantage has the nice bonus of bringing nearly exponential improvements to our efficiency. You can think up tons of stuff to become better at killing, and inventing something will lead to inventing another something related to that later on. Animals on the other hand, have a kind of downward "ability" curve. A cheetah might be able to become 1 kph faster than his ancestor was, but after that, the increments decrease (.5 kph, .25 kph, etc.), until they're nearly flush with the maximum speed an animal that size and weight can achieve short of having rocket bottoms. Humans can attach themselves jetpacks and are only bound by the laws of time and thermodynamics. We rule.

And, seriously, I can't believe nobody remarked yet how dwarven the "If we can't eat sea kittens, we'll have to eat more land fish" quote was.

[Sergius]

Humans are clearly better physically than any animal. They can produce devastating little metal balls from their hands that pierce holes into any other creature at hundreds of meters, can run at speeds of 300+ km per hour, can hold their breath for hours or even days, skim on the surface of the ocean faster than any fish or other animal could. They can lift objects thousands of times their own weight, can stare out into the sky as far away as the next solar system at least, and they can secrete nearly impenetrable substances with which they make their nests.

And do other stuff good too.

[LegoLord]

they can secrete nearly impenetrable substances with which they make their nests.

And do other stuff good too.

Wait, what?

[Duke 2.0]

they can secrete nearly impenetrable substances with which they make their nests.

And do other stuff good too.

Wait, what?

Technology, if sufficiently advanced, is indistinguishable from magic.

 Edit:
 What is a poison? What is considered stupid? Remember, you cannot look at this from a human perspective. We merely secrete chemicals like every other living thing. We are no more poisoning the environment than bacteria. Everything can die to anything at the extremes of things.

 Let us wipe out the plankton, for if they continue to grow unchecked then they will poison our environment with oxygen and make it impossible for plants to survive!

[Zeful]

Humans are clearly better physically than any animal. They can produce devastating little metal balls from their hands that pierce holes into any other creature at hundreds of meters, can run at speeds of 300+ km per hour, can hold their breath for hours or even days, skim on the surface of the ocean faster than any fish or other animal could. They can lift objects thousands of times their own weight, can stare out into the sky as far away as the next solar system at least, and they can secrete nearly impenetrable substances with which they make their nests.

And do other stuff good too.

We also kill ourselves over the stupidest of reason and poison our environment.

[Crossroads Inc.]

boo

Mepha? As in Mephansteras From Sluggy.net?