Will resolve to a percentage determined by poll after market closes.
Related questions
they may win the battle but not the war
Cat scratch disease (CSD) is a bacterial infection spread by cats. The disease spreads when an infected cat licks a person’s open wound, or bites or scratches a person hard enough to break the surface of the skin. About three to 14 days after the skin is broken, a mild infection can occur at the site of the scratch or bite. The infected area may appear swollen and red with round, raised lesions and can have pus. A person with CSD may also have a fever, headache, poor appetite, and exhaustion. Later, the person’s lymph nodes near the original scratch or bite can become swollen, tender, or painful.
or maybe they infect you and you less risk adverse
This cat-borne parasite might just make you more entrepreneurial. Infection from the globally prevalent parasite Toxoplasma gondii may increase a person's likelihood of pursuing entrepreneurial and business-related activities
will be using the poll from this to resolve
Who/what do Manifold users think they could beat (unarmed) in a fight? [Add responses.]
Here's an authoritative take.
If the cat has a neuralink with a good human player controlling it - cat kills human by severing an artery then running in circles until the human bleeds out.
Otherwise, the cat dies, because cats fight by kicking, scratching and biting while wrestling in close contact. Not a good strategy against a big monkey.
@lukres Using a neuralink with a human in the loop negates the cat's biggest advantage: its reflexes. Good luck severing an artery through my boot while it is coming at them at 60mph.
@koadma Cat's reflexes and instincts are not well suited for a fight against a human. An AI would be better, but a skilled human would have mastered a combo that works. Use the cat's speed and agility to get on your back and you are fucked. Go for the neck or maul your hands as you try to grab it.
@lukres Ok, post-singularity, I'm challenging any otherwise non-enhanced human controlling a cat's body to fight some reconstruction of my current body controlled by an otherwise unenhanced me.
@lukres I think there is no way that the controlled cat manage to sever an artery in a fight. And then there is no way it cans escape kick or grab for long if he has nowhere to hide.
Assuming it’s first to die loses, random human that exists vs. random house cat that exists, AND the cat is unable to hide for long periods to regain strength, the human wins like 95% of the time.
Any grab + follow-up combo is going to be lethal for the cat, whereas the cat would need sustained weak point damage to take out a human. Even if the cat applies a lethal DoT, it would likely take significant time before the human is down for the count, putting insane time pressure on the cat.
The cat also loses over time due to inefficient energy usage. Most humans could win by simply blocking the whole fight until the cat is unable to continue, then delivering a lethal strike.
If the cat is able to hide and rest, I think the probability of a human win drops to about 80% which I come to by estimating how often the average human can perform a grab combo against the average cat.
It feels like they don't appropriately respect the fact that cats kill several billion birds per year. Birds with sharp beaks who can fly. We don't have sharp bits, and can barely even run by comparison to most animals. And merely being punctured by their fangs will stick all kinds of icky bacteria into our inside-bits and require immediate medical attention and antibiotics to prevent a really bad outcome.
Is the house cat in this scenario for some reason inclined towards fightyness?
I think a house cat could kill me if it decided it wanted to (they have much more experience with killing things than I do), but usually they are either friendly or cautious towards humans and will tend to flee rather than attack.
How sneaky am I allowed to be, and what are my armaments? Is "flee the house and then burn it down" not sporting enough? 😂
I can think of several ways of potentially surviving the encounter, but they seem not in the spirit of engaging in one on one combat. I'm imagining "cage match" is more what you have in mind?
@strutheo Then I'm super dead, and if you promise to make those conditions clear in the poll I'm betting this way down.
@equinoxhq i will make it clearer lol. but remember - even if you think you'd die, its about what the average manifold user will vote! maybe they're a bit more headstrong and confident than you haha
@strutheo That's true, I've got to bet based on what people think would happen, not what actually would. 😂
@CertaintyOfVictory ... based on your username and that comment, I think you and I might have a different approach to risk management 😂
And, counterpoint: https://theoatmeal.com/comics/cats_actually_kill
@equinoxhq Hm, I guess I haven't ruled that completely out yet: Are you a mouse, or maybe a hamster or a small bird? Not only would that be amazing, it would also explain why you are so afraid of house cats. I genuinely think that a grown human could be hurt in a serious fight with a house cat, but I consider it very unlikely that they would be killed. The biggest risk is toxoplasmosis.
@CertaintyOfVictory I find it unlikely that a grown human would be killed because in reality a house cat is going to run away rather than fight, and that instinct will allow the human to win if they're trying to kill the cat. Which is why my first question was how much of a fighty mood the cat was in. But accepting as given a fantastical scenario where a cat wanted me dead and was willing to risk its life to accomplish that goal, it's more agile, it has claws and teeth which it has practiced killing things with so it has a reasonable guess at where to strike, and there's a not insignificant chance of serious infection from a cat bite wound. In order for me to get my hands (which are my main "weapon" in this scenario) in a position to kill it, I've got to get within range of the claws and teeth. It's like asking how well I'd do against an armed and skilled opponent if I was unarmed, but the opponent was smaller and weaker but also faster and much more agile. "I'm definitely super dead" might be an exaggeration, but I'd definitely take a lot of damage if in a fantasy scenario a cat was bent on ending me, and it might well succeed.
@equinoxhq A cat weighs 4kg, maybe 6kg if it is especially muscly or fat. Even a leek of a person is around ten times as heavy. One kick that's connecting is enough for the cat to be seriously injured.
If we're talking about averages: Would you really bet on a 4kg cat to win a fight against a 60kg ape with the intent to kill, who just happens to be the most intelligent predator currently on earth?
@CertaintyOfVictory I can't argue your point that humans are in a different weight class. But I think the benefits of our intelligence are mostly neutralized in this case. Let me use tools, and the cat has no chance. Let me use my superior intelligence to coordinate with my neigbors better than the cat can, and again, we know which way this is going to go. Let me bring in some cat food laced with poison, or cover my hands in some compound that is harmless to me but lethal to cats, and again the intelligence of my species lets me win. Heck, give me some catnip and I can probably win.
But put me in a situation where I don't have any tools or weapons and can't coordinate with any other humans, it's just my body vs. the cat's body (let's also assume I don't have heavy boots to kick with, maybe I'm even barefoot, nor particularly proactive clothing, as that seems in the spirit of the scenario) and whatever superior intelligence I may have has to give me some advantage by being able to think more quickly in a combat situation. I think human intelligence really shines when humans have time to think, and carnivores' instinctive split-second reaction times really shine when they're in the process of trying to kill something. Hunter-gatherer humans might be decent predators (and in fact, often smarter than present-day average humans, who are part of a society where they can make a living without needing to know all that much, because society collectively knows plenty and can give out simple tasks for most people to do, or let someone smart specialize in some very narrow domain). But modern humans, stripped of tools and weapons and help from other people, stuck in an empty room with a homicidal carnivore with plenty of practice using its bodily endowments to kill things? I think I'd give the advantage to the cat, even though it's smaller.
But I don't expect the average person on Manifold to think similarly, which is why I've only bet it down to the average of the survey Chris posted.
@strutheo In theory, yes. In practice, I think a cat will be better at dodging my attempted attacks than I will be at dodging its attempts. Smaller animals have a higher flicker fusion rate and the bits of their brains that process sensory inputs can synchronize quicker, and there's speculation that the effect of this would be an altered perception of time, similar to everything moving in slow motion. Which is why it's hard to swat a fly with your hand, even though they're very dumb. Their reaction time is just faster. I didn't think of this until just now, but it's kind of like you're trying to deliver a "swift" kick to Neo from the matrix. 😃
@CertaintyOfVictory That is entirely possible, and in any case, he can't have less experience at it than I do 😃
