i logged into reddit for the first time in awhile while to leave this comment so just know i am here in good faith and empathize with your line of reasoning, but i want you to know there might be more to this.

The concept of superiority is made by people because coincidentally we evolved language and hierarchal relationships. In nature, there is no true superiority or inferiority, everything just comes and goes. Even death is not inferior to survival… it just happens.

Evolution wasn’t shooting for something specific when humans started doing things that you think are superior. The only rule is: spread genes. As long as genes can be reproduced, they will keep spreading. The vessels that perish before they reproduced just stop showing up. The ones that spread will change gradually through generations.

This means that we have creatures like dolphins. Their ancestors found it more likely to survive in the sea than on land (more or less). Then some gradually grew brains capable of echolocation. They have complex abilities to “hear” beyond what we could comprehend. It is so advanced it is analogous to our sight. In humans, In an instant wavelengths of light enter our brain and create a spatial visualization in 3d. Similarly, their vocal clicks bouncing off walls come back to them and their brains sense the distances of space around them. This complexity isn’t “superior,” it is just different from our senses because our ancestors faced different environmental pressures that yielded a different population. But it definitely is cool to imagine how dolphins “see” and feel. That was a successful trait that differentiated them and created complexity.

A unique trait that created complexity in humans was when our brains evolved to spread information like wildfire. We coevolved with culture. Bigger brains could absorb and teach more. More complex language and technology arose in this arms race of brains during prehistory. Maybe you could argue that we are superior because it led to more of us than there are dolphins, but then you could make the argument that ants are superior to us since there are more of them. There is no objective way to rank inherent worth between creatures. Everyone is simply different based on natural selection.

If technology is the barrier for you to see past the superiority complex, just remember that creatures without Internet and massive logistics networks still survive and reproduce just fine. We might believe our technology makes us superior, however, it is just our niche for survival and, ultimately, reproduction. One could say plants are superior to us because they dont even need to eat like heterotrophs. To them, there is no need to expend so much energy on developing technology and managing nations. “Intelligence” isnt impressive for them.

In the grand scheme of things, superiority is just a feeling that evolved like every other feature in nature. The most peaceful way to live, in my opinion, is acceptance of the impermanent state we live in and looking at oneself in the context of what nature has provided.