Somehow this bothered me. Imagine the classic species of 'homo' in your classic fantasy creatures (i.e. Classic Humans, Dwarves, Elves, Dragonoids, Beastmen, etc.) being separared so that each of them will have to start civilization and development from scratch with no intervention. Let's start with the condition that the 5 aforementioned races are our 'guinea pigs' each with their respective planets to prevent interaction. Beastmen have mixed lifespans, the lifespan of these creatures (Humans, Dwarves, Elves, Dragonoids) are in order from shortest to longest. Also omit the fact that Dwarves and Elves have their specialization like crafting and magitech (no magic allowed) as they will be a inhabitant of a whole planet. Which do you think will develop faster, and why? Setting up the average lifespan: Beastmen: Depends on type (from 40-1000) Humans: 80 Dwarves: 300 Elves: 500 Dragonoids: normally exceeds 1000 (P.S. Can't find anything like this on the internet)
The lower the lifespan of an intelligent species, the faster its civilization advances. Long lifespan promotes stagnation. Unless that long lifespan species is specialty/ designed to constantly improving.
I believe if a genius appeared that has long life span, it will cause unmatched developmental stability. Also let's consider internal conflicts too.
Humans. They are the weakest, so they strived for something else to substitute their weaknesses. Technology is created to help us survive, if we are the strongest being on the planet with no equal, we wouldn't be bothered to do math and science.
Rules are, there is no magic. So elves will suffer the same drawback so that statement applies to them too. Physical strength is limited by natural physical limits.
Depend if that genius in power or not. Another point in fast civilization advancement is constant conflict. Peace generate no to slow advancement
Elf is peaceful and loves nature. That is their drawback and would inevitably slow down technology if they love forest and not an industrial world where trees got chopped off like trash.
the thing is a civilizations progress is dictated by the need desu~ folks who live long lives tend to forego long term ventures in favor of short term ventures, meaning most if not all of them will aim for a hedonistic lifestyle where things are done in their leisure desu~
Humans obviously. Why? Because Humans are inferior in everything compare to those races, aside from intelligent. Also humans are greedy. Because our lifespan is shorter, we strive to make the most of our life. That can speed up the speed of our civillisation growth, though it can also lead us to our impending doom (imagine a fail biological experiment, or failing to understand one another and using weapon of mass destruction against eachother, or heavily altering nature to our benefit until some kind of natural disaster happens). So I think human civillization will be the most advanced, and maybe they will wipe themselves and the other races out of the face of the planet.
As they start civilization from scratch by themselves and considering the limits factored in, I think this will not happen normally as it is. But yeah as it is their tendency to do so and slow down everything to a standstill.
Listen here, humans are the apex predator. Do you know that human brain took years to fully develop while animal brain are completed since they were born? Because our brain is much more complex and powerful and consume more energy, thus require more time. It takes approximately 20% of human's lifespan to fully develop. If the others are the same, it means that dwarf brain takes 60+ years, elf 100+ and dragon 200+ years. A man in his forties can easily deceive 200 years old dragon. Human scales better. Humans are the best
So we can say humans will go extinct first if things went awry But remember that each races are separated with a planet each.
I was saying why does lifespan come into the equation when most will die because of famine, disease, etc? I always wonder what the basis of such proposition is? We do maths and science mainly to compete against another human, though?
Only if the genius of the long lived race is able to motivate others. Geniuses can only do so much by themselves. Yes, they come up with the ideas, but they need people to implement them. Also dont forget long life will also make it harder to introduce change and have the change accepted by people. Internal conflict would also be worse. As hate will linger for far longer for the people who experienced the hate will be alive for so long to keep breeding such hate. Quicker people die, quicker such hate plays less of a role in things. Also, long lived races usually have lower birth rates, meaning less population which would affect them. Short lived races have the advantage here. Hate dies out faster, large population granting large work force and more chances of geniuses appearing. Beastmen, would probably be the worst of the lot. Influenced at least partly of their nature of beast would make them more likely for conflict. Humans win imo 6 out of 10 times. Dwarves win 3 out 10 times Eleven win 1 out of 10 times Beastmen win 0 out of 10 times Dragons always win so they dont bother and just sleep
Humans will live on global average of 80, including those dying from famine and stuff. That's why I said human will live a little longer than usual.
The more warlike the species the faster they'll grow. The biggest breakthroughs in technology have always come when life and death are at hand. The choice to make something new that'll kill your enemies faster generally turns into new breakthroughs for the entire species outside of war as well.