若人类灭绝了 地球谁来接管？

 　　Which species would take over the world if humans went extinct?

　　如果人类灭绝了，哪类物种会统治世界？

　　来自Quora的网友总结：

　　Well it won't be fecking dolphins, that's for sure. Because:

　　当然，那TM肯定不可能是海豚。因为：

　　1. No opposable thumbs.

　　没有对生拇指。

　　2. No means of locomotion¹ on land.

　　不能在陆地上移动。

　　3. Pseudo-fish scumbags who lie about all day.

　　这些看起来像鱼类的家伙整天游手好闲。

　　若人类灭绝了 地球谁来接管？

　　And it won't be chimpanzees, orang-outans, gorillas², dogs, cats or bats. Sorry crazy cat-people. Why? Because that isn't how evolution works. Evolution does not have a goal like "become sentient³, take over the planet", evolution is a thing that happens to a population when mutations prove favourable⁴ for survival.

　　而且它也不会是黑猩猩，红毛猩猩，大猩猩，狗，猫或蝙蝠。疯狂的喵星人，不好意思啦。为什么呢？因为进化不是这样纸的。 进化的过程没有像“要有意识，能掌管整个地球”这样的一个目标。进化是一个物种碰巧有利于生存的基因突变的时刻。

　　Monkeys do not become intelligent monkeys given enough time: they get - as a species - to continue existing, that's the 'prize'.

　　猴子的话，没有足够的时间让它们变得聪明：它们能够作为一种物种继续生存——这就是最大的奖励了。

　　My candidate, my boy, for taking over the crown of Top of The World is possibly the most alien order of life mankind has ever encountered....I give you: the octopus⁵!

　　我的候选人，我的孩纸，掌握“世界之巅”这座桂冠的，很可能是人类遇到过生活秩序最为外星的……我给你个答案：章鱼！

　　Utterly⁶, utterly alien, here are some fun facts about the octopus.

　　这个说法彻底很陌生吧，但是确实有一些很有趣的事实。

　　They have three hearts. Almost like Klingons.

　　它们有三颗心，几乎跟克林贡人一样。

　　They are highly intelligent and are believed to have individual personalities⁷.

　　它们是高度智能化的，被认为具有个性。

　　They have four pairs of arms and can move on land as well as under water. The dexterity⁸ of their arms in combination is easily the equal of opposable thumbs and being able to move on land, they have no hard and fast obstacle to mastering fire.

　　他们有四对手足，可以在陆地和水下移动。他们触手的灵活性无疑来自于对生拇指让它们能够在陆地上移动，在灭火问题上，也没有什么硬性障碍。

　　They have vertebrate-like eyes, evolved independently. Beautiful, pretty, vertebrate eyes...

　　他们有像脊椎动物那样单独进化的眼睛。美丽的，漂亮的像脊椎动物那般的眼睛...

　　In summary therefore, their ascendance is a matter of when, not if.

　　总之，它们的崛起只是时间问题，而不是假设性的。

1 locomotion   

n.运动，移动

参考例句：

• By land,air or sea,birds are masters of locomotion.无论是通过陆地，飞越空中还是穿过海洋，鸟应算是运动能手了。
• Food sources also elicit oriented locomotion and recognition behavior patterns in most insects.食物源也引诱大多数昆虫定向迁移和识别行为。

2 gorillas   

n.大猩猩( gorilla的名词复数 )；暴徒，打手

参考例句：

• the similitude between humans and gorillas 人类和大猩猩的相像
• Each family of gorillas is led by a great silverbacked patriarch. 每个大星星家族都由一个魁梧的、长着银色被毛的族长带领着。 来自《简明英汉词典》

3 sentient   

adj.有知觉的，知悉的；adv.有感觉能力地

参考例句：

• The living knew themselves just sentient puppets on God's stage.生还者认识到，他们不过是上帝的舞台上有知觉的木偶而已。
• It teaches us to love all sentient beings equally.它教导我们应该平等爱护一切众生。

4 favourable   

adj.赞成的，称赞的，有利的，良好的，顺利的

参考例句：

• The company will lend you money on very favourable terms.这家公司将以非常优惠的条件借钱给你。
• We found that most people are favourable to the idea.我们发现大多数人同意这个意见。

5 octopus   

n.章鱼

参考例句：

• He experienced nausea after eating octopus.吃了章鱼后他感到恶心。
• One octopus has eight tentacles.一条章鱼有八根触角。

6 utterly   

adv.完全地，绝对地

参考例句：

• Utterly devoted to the people,he gave his life in saving his patients.他忠于人民，把毕生精力用于挽救患者的生命。
• I was utterly ravished by the way she smiled.她的微笑使我完全陶醉了。

7 personalities   

n. 诽谤，（对某人容貌、性格等所进行的）人身攻击； 人身攻击；人格, 个性, 名人( personality的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• There seemed to be a degree of personalities in her remarks.她话里有些人身攻击的成分。
• Personalities are not in good taste in general conversation.在一般的谈话中诽谤他人是不高尚的。

8 dexterity   

n.(手的)灵巧，灵活

参考例句：

• You need manual dexterity to be good at video games.玩好电子游戏手要灵巧。
• I'm your inferior in manual dexterity.论手巧，我不如你。