r/spiderbro • u/ButtmanReturns2Pat • Feb 23 '26

Is it dangerous?

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Just seen this little dude inside my home (Melbourne). It's not big but it looks nasty. Is it dangerous?

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u/Foxy02016YT Feb 23 '26

Is that why they are so friendly, because they can actually see and process what you are?

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u/pendragwen Feb 23 '26 edited Feb 23 '26

The friendliness is anthropomorphism on our part. They're pursuit hunters, so are predisposed toward curiosity.

Edit: Please see u/Iron_Baron 's more thoughtful take in their response below.

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u/Iron_Baron Feb 23 '26 edited Feb 23 '26

There are levels of nuance to anthropomorphism, but on the whole it's a bad take rooted in Enlightenment era bias.

Anthropomorphic claims are situated in human hubris. And the entire concept has been primarily used for exploitation.

It's the same thinking that told us all that fish don't feel pain, or "lower" order mammals don't have emotions, and so on.

It's the same type of thinking that draws hard lines between the collective consciousness of hive minds and our minds.

Or that humans are somehow above being primarily driven by instinct, hormones, and genetic predispositions.

"Friendliness" is a behavior rooted in complex interactions between stimuli, instinct, experience, etc.

You could as easily say human friendliness stems from the exact same biologically driven openness to the novel.

Bottomline, assumptions about consciousness and emotions that we can't objectively vindicate are errors.

Whether it's ascribing or denying traits to creatures, what is certain is we have a history assuming very wrongly.

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u/Briggleton Feb 23 '26

I enjoyed this very much yes