March 30th, 2007
A Bird with Deep Thoughts
(3 votes, average: 4.33 out of 5)
Loading ...Whether or not animals are capable of suicide depends on your views of free will. Do humans actually choose to kill themselves or is there something in their brain chemistry that creates that urge? Many scientists agree that animals appearing to kill themselves (beached whales, spiders being eaten by their young, Salmon traveling upstream to spawn and then die), are merely reacting to injuries, or a bad environment. In the case of spiders and salmon they’re doing what’s natural for their life cycle. Who’s to say suicidal humans aren’t injured, or carriers of a genetic predisposition to suicidal tendencies.
Also, why are the creatures with so very little to say so incredibly loud and obnoxious? I am of course talking about Fox News.
April 16th, 2007 at 1:33 am
Awesome comic! I just discovered it while doing some research into webcomics (thinking of starting my own). I love that the characters are virtually featureless stand-ins. I’ve been going back through the archive and every comic works. Kudos!
On the matter of animal suicide, human suicide is a response to the pain of severe depression - a chemical imbalance in the brain. I think it falls into the category of an instinctual response. I don’t think that people who haven’t experienced severe depression really realize how strong the suicidal desire can be. Overcoming it is the choice part. Personally, I think our tendency to get severe depression might be an evolutionary quirk of how our brains work and the ritualized ways that we socialize (compared to similarly big-brained species like dolphins) and may be responsible for the uniqueness of suicide in humans. I’m not an anthropologist, so that’s just conjecture.
November 2nd, 2008 at 3:10 am
It’s simple… When something sucks, it’s instinct to get away from it. Fire burns, pull your hand away. Hungry lion growls, you get into the car. Life does nothing but suck, you get out of life.
It’s a desperation thing. It takes conscious effort to endure the pain and try to find enough benefits not to leave it.
November 2nd, 2008 at 3:14 am
Forgot to finish… but yeah, animals might not get suicidal tendencies cuz they live in the moment and usually don’t look at life as a whole. They’re natural optimists and always figure something better will come their way. So they have no reason to leave life; any minute now they’ll get food or a belly-rub or a snuggle with a friend or a nice tree to scratch an itch on.