If humans became as small as insects, could they still rule the earth?

It took humans only 3 million years to achieve the transformation from primitive humans to modern civilization. Today, humans can not only fly into space, but also have the ability to explore other planets in the solar system. What does all this rely on?

You will definitely say "wisdom". Yes, wisdom is the cornerstone of human beings' creation of modern civilization, but wisdom alone is not enough. There are also some factors that we have overlooked that are also very important, such as human body size. Let us think about this question: If the human body becomes as small as an insect, can we still become the overlord of the earth? Can modern civilization still be born as expected? Objectively speaking, if the human body is the same size as an insect, not only will modern civilization not be born, but it will also be difficult for humans to become an intelligent life. At most, we are just smarter than other animals.

What is the connection between human size and intelligence? The connection lies in the brain.

As the body size shrinks, the head naturally shrinks as well. As the head shrinks, the brain capacity naturally becomes smaller. Does the brain capacity become smaller, so people become stupider? That won't happen. There is indeed a close connection between the intelligence of an animal and its brain capacity, but this connection is not absolute. Animals with larger bodies naturally have larger brain capacity. For example, the brain capacity of whales far exceeds that of humans, and they are indeed very smart, but this does not mean that they are smarter than humans. The data that can truly be used to measure the relationship between an animal's intelligence and its brain is called the "encephalization index." The encephalization index is a constant that describes the relationship between an animal's body weight and brain weight. The higher the encephalization index, the higher the intelligence.

The human encephalization index is about 7.6, while that of chimpanzees is only 2.5, so humans are far ahead of other animals in terms of intelligence.

When humans shrink, the encephalization index does not change. Doesn't this mean that body size has nothing to do with intelligence? Otherwise, the encephalization index is just a measurement indicator invented by humans. The factor that really affects an animal's intelligence is the number of neurons in the brain. Although the body sizes of various animals vary greatly, the size of neurons is almost the same. This means that after the body size shrinks, the number of neurons will be greatly reduced. Therefore, even if humans can continue to have a brain that is smarter than other animals, it is difficult for them to be smart enough to give birth to wisdom. Therefore, body size is actually a threshold that restricts the transformation of ordinary organisms into intelligent life.

Now, let's relax the conditions and assume that humans can still have the same intelligence as they do now after shrinking. Then can humans achieve dominance over the earth? Still no.

Insects are the most numerous animals in the world. 75% of known animals are insects. An ordinary ant colony may have tens of thousands of ants. When humans become the same size as insects, these insects will become enemies of humans. Is this terrible? Very terrible. It is like the number of tigers and lions in the world becoming as numerous as insects. In such a world, is it possible for humans to safely survive the primitive period and move towards modern civilization? For the shrunken humans, insects are not the most terrible. The most terrible thing is the giant beasts all over the world.

To the shrunken humans, most animals will become behemoths, and facing these behemoths, it will be difficult for us to survive even if we have modern weapons and equipment.

Think about the monsters that appeared in the early episodes of Ultraman. Most of them have no special functions, they are just big, and this alone is enough to make humans helpless. Moreover, there is only one monster in the Ultraman episodes, while humans have to face tens of millions of monsters. This is not an exaggeration. For insect-sized humans, cats and dogs are very scary monsters. According to statistics in 2020, the number of stray cats and dogs in first- and second-tier cities across the country has reached 45 million. Even if the miniature humans have modern weapons and equipment, I am afraid they can't even deal with 10 puppies.

In fact, even if the miniaturized humans possessed the same wisdom, they would not be able to create modern civilization.

The development of civilization is always closely related to the use of energy. Coal, oil, steel, these energy and minerals necessary for the development of civilization are difficult for humans to obtain after they are reduced in size. Because these resources are buried underground, and the shrunken humans can only build a drill the size of a "rhinoceros beetle" at most. If they can build a drill the size of a cat or dog, it can be said to be a world-shaking move. Even so, using such a large drill to mine coal or drill wells for oil is simply a fantasy. If we can't even obtain the energy necessary for the development of civilization, how can we talk about creating modern civilization? Therefore, wisdom is indeed very important, but wisdom alone is not enough. There is also a connection between civilization and body size. If the body is not big enough, it is not enough to have only a smart head.

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