this post was submitted on 05 May 2025
216 points (100.0% liked)
memes
23206 readers
303 users here now
dank memes
Rules:
-
All posts must be memes and follow a general meme setup.
-
No unedited webcomics.
-
Someone saying something funny or cringe on twitter/tumblr/reddit/etc. is not a meme. Post that stuff in /c/slop
-
Va*sh posting is haram and will be removed.
-
Follow the code of conduct.
-
Tag OC at the end of your title and we'll probably pin it for a while if we see it.
-
Recent reposts might be removed.
-
No anti-natalism memes. See: Eco-fascism Primer
founded 4 years ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
the difference between an adult man and a child is also significantly larger than an adult human and a gorilla
Is there a human who ever lived who could have 1v1'd a gorilla unarmed? probably not, but if you're in a group, then every extra arm and muscle you have increases team human's effectiveness drastically, coordination and a group effort can make the lack of muscle irrelevant.
and assuming that we're talking about a wild gorilla and not a Kong Fu master, the gorilla is completely untrained and relying on brute force rather than any real martial arts skill. the ONLY thing a lone gorilla really has going for it is pure muscle, and that only takes you so far
A silverback weighs 450lbs
An adult human man weighs 200lbs
I don't think the comparison to a child is that bad. The muscle strength estimate is incomparable too, the general estimate for how much a Silverback can bench is 1800lbs. They're THAT fucking strong. The average bench for a man is like 160-210lbs.
Human team has to be willing to sacrifice members because the first 5 people that get close are 110% dead. You need coordinated soldiers that are willing to die to beat this thing collectively as a group, not average untrained people who all want to survive individually.
this debate would be a lot more fun after 2 beers. pretend i'm sitting next to two empty pint glasses here
fuckin train me a gorilla that can bench press a motorcycle and prove it then
I'm surprised no zoos have put a rudimentary pulldown machine in with them. Eventually a gorilla's gonna use the pulldown mechanism and you'd get an idea of what they can pull from that. Can't find video though.
There's a few videos of them climbing and flipping their body around like it's nothing though, and that's 450lbs of weight they just carry and flip around from branch to branch on a single arm like nothing. https://youtu.be/JaZ6-2X406k
I found a YouTube link in your comment. Here are links to the same video on alternative frontends that protect your privacy:
The chimpanzee equivalent of a middle aged woman was able to rip a human's entire face from their head. A gorilla could probably rip a human skull from their head if it wanted to.
I don't see the humans winning unless they all lock arms and charge the gorilla at once as a human wave or can use weapons.
The best argument I've seen is that after a few people get dismembered the other humans can start using limbs as weapons. I honestly think it's their best chance.
awoo I didn't know you were an optimist
I just copied whatever the google ai shit said to me when I looked it up lmao i am open to correction
they have a different kind of muscle. fast-twitch. it outperforms regular muscle pound for pound. trades endurance for strength.
a coordinated attempt to restrain it could be possible but using long sticks would be ideal, making a pike wall
Both you and the gorilla have both slow and fast twitch muscle fibers in your arms and legs (As an addendum, we tend to just call them type I and type II fibers when discussing humans). In fact basically any skeletal muscle is gonna have a mixture of both fibers, or it would be pretty useless. (Theres also a secret third kind that's relevant when discussing the strength vs endurance thing)
Chimps (I don't know about gorillas) apparently tend to have more type I muscle fibers compared to type II than us, but you can't attribute all the strength difference to this alone. Many of the human leg muscles are almost entirely type I, and I sure can't jump like a chimp
yeah I'm just remembering something I read that was discussing why a chimp could easily kill an adult human despite the size difference. the article mentioned it having far more fast twitch muscle fibers as the reason.
i think it's also biomechanical like the shape and distribution of their arms and their ability to generate leverage being why chimps are so "strong" but idk if that is true and not just something I think
According to this random blog I found the advantages include 10 times the biting force 10 times the lifting strength, 4 times the grip strength, the punch of a champion heavy weight boxer and the ability to keep uo with Usain Bolt.
Dang why are we so much less jacked than our genetic cousins
we don't need to be
There is a neurological tradeoff between being capable of fine motor skills or being able to recruit muscle fibers fully on short notice. Most animals get much more power out of their muscles, kilo for kilo, than a typical human, but few match us for devising novel, complex motions beyond the instinctual. We put everything into being able to speak and to make and use complex tools.
Repeated training does allow a human to recruit a greater share of the relevant muscle fibers into any given movement, but overall we will not match other animals for improvised general strength.
Humans have extremely good eyesight. Pretty much the only animals with better eyesight are birds of prey and a selection of invertebrates that can see UV light/distinguish higher FPS/see more colors. Almost every other animal has trash eyesight by human standards.
we invented the chair
The silverback gorilla is kind of an outlier amongst apes tbf. Despite the insistence of the Joe Rogans of the world, if you dedicated your life to athletics you be stronger in whatever area you decide to pursue than a chimp. But it would pack a lot of strength into a smaller package, and for that it has "sacrificed" motor control or endurance (Depending on what biologist you ask. I'm not into the science enough to tell you)
we figured out that "pick up pointy stick, drive prey until it dies of heat stroke" works better than raw strength