Is there anything that makes humans unique?

[Woem]

If you ask anyone, they'll claim we're different from the animals but have trouble pinning down how. True, we're more intelligent than other animals and we have some more pronounced traits but is there something only we have or can do?

P.S. Don't bring in religion.

Why would we not bring in religion? I believe it's one the most profound things that makes humans unique... Our technology is just an advancement on the crow's "use rock to crack nuts" for instance, and our language isn't any more useful than any other animal's. In the most extreme situations we can't even control our instincts and urges.

 

[BNguyen]

diverse and written language
tail-less bipedal structure (only creature like this)
ability to invent and improve
ability to alter our surroundings to suit our needs (only viruses and humans can do this)

on the last note, what about beavers?

 

[BNguyen]

One thing could be our desire to make war and kill each other and everything sometimes for the sheer fun of it.
Animals will usually kill for territory, rivalry, or food, but never go against an entire group for small differences in thinking or physical appearances.

We also have the ability to contemplate our universe, reasoning its past, present, and future, animals could care less

One last thing would probably be the complex emotion of anger. Animals as I see them don't fight in anger but for power.

 

[Lord Monocle Von Banworthy]

We're the only animal that kills for no reason.
And the only one that avoids responsibility for its actions.

So every time a pit bull bites some toddler's face off there was a reason?

As for the second one, nice attempt at being philosophical or something, but how would you even measure something like that? What would be the operational definitions of Responsibility and Avoiding Responsibility that the animal would be working with?

1. Yes, actually. It felt threatened, or was hungry. Always a practical motive behind violence in animals.

2. Responsibility: Animals kill each other. They do it for a reason.
When people kill, they tend to try to make the victim seem less than human, or find an excuse.
That's waht I mean by responsibility.

1. Well in that case humans always kill for a reason too. They kill for hate, or for the victim's Nikes, or just because the voices in their heads tell them to. You still lose this one.

2. What the hell does that even mean? Are you seriously saying that YOU KNOW what an animal nobody can talk to THINKS before it kills another animal? Furthermore you're supposing that in this fantasy world of yours the animal in question grants full equality to another animal IN ITS MIND?

Since I live in reality and you live in Narnia, we obviously can't discuss this. Final word to you, Sorrow. I really can't see a point in responding to anything you say on this subject.

 

[TheTygerfire]

We can create or destroy anything we want.

we still cant create worldfreedom/peace

We can, it's just easier not to.

 

[Iron Mal]

Humans have the capacity for shame and self loathing (no other animal will debase itself for moral or ethical reasons, in fact, no other species of animal has the concept of morals or ethics).

That's actually BS. Several groups of different social animals have ethicals rules similar to the 'Golden Rule' within their groups.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/3014747.stm

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/wildlife/5373379/Animals-can-tell-right-from-wrong.html

http://www.talkorigins.org/indexcc/CA/CA630.html

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/20/science/20moral.html?_r=1

As far as we humans know, we are to only species so far to codify our morality and develop it into actual laws. But we are not alone in our morality.

From the last link "Some animals are surprisingly sensitive to the plight of others. Chimpanzees, who cannot swim, have drowned in zoo moats trying to save others. Given the chance to get food by pulling a chain that would also deliver an electric shock to a companion, rhesus monkeys will starve themselves for several days."

"Social living requires empathy, which is especially evident in chimpanzees, as well as ways of bringing internal hostilities to an end. Every species of ape and monkey has its own protocol for reconciliation after fights, Dr. de Waal has found. If two males fail to make up, female chimpanzees will often bring the rivals together, as if sensing that discord makes their community worse off and more vulnerable to attack by neighbors. Or they will head off a fight by taking stones out of the males? hands. "

Okay, so the issue of animals posessing morality is debateable, it could be argued that altruism is an evolutionary adaptation rather than a cultural one (even insects such as termites have been known to sacrifice their lives for the good of the hive/nest/mound/whatever it's called yet it is highly unlikely that they posess any moral code or ethics), what about the other points I made?

Also, another visable difference between humans and animals is that animals require generations of natural selection and evolution to adapt to new environments or challanges in their survival. Humans, on the other hand, devise new technologies, develop techniques and skills and build dwellings to suit any environment (we are effectively the most versitile lifeform on the planet seeing as we no longer have any need to evolve or adapt).

Humans have the power to destroy the planet, we have knowledge of the history of the planet and of our world that far exceeds any animal's knowledge and we provide animals with human-like qualities.

 

[freakonaleash]

Yea b

Um I think that humans (aside from dolphins) are the only animals that enjoy sex....

Suck it dogs

Yea but dolphins don't have the moral emotional or the moronic religious chains that tend to bind a person after sex.

So what your saying is... all dolphins are whores?

Of course they are! That's how people get dorsal fin herpes.

Gorillas do to! hah!

 

[TwistedEllipses]

Okay as the publisher of the OP I'll try to catch up and giving an overview.

Discounted:
-Opposable thumbs are actually fairly common among primates
-Dolphins enjoy sex
-Elephants bury their dead
-Kangaroos are bipeds too
-Dolphins, elephants, primates and pigs are self aware
-Pigs, dolphins and elephants can problem solve
-insect operate in societies and can farm funghi and other insects
-language is used by nearly everything
-bacteria can terra-from too
-bacteria use energy from hydro-thermic vents

Rocky ground:
-intelligence, out on a technicality since this isn't unique. Sure other animals are less smart, but it's not a unique trait being intelligent.
-use of complex tools (primates can use tools, so with training they could probably fire a gun and do more complex actions)
-No natural predator. Although we can technically attack anything, we're not the nature predator of everything.


Unique:
-abstract thought (includes morality and art/culture)
-written language
-perception of time(?)

The main one is the fact that it is not what we have, but the combination that is unique and the degree to which certain traits are employed.

 

[BNguyen]

I guess another thing would be that humans are seemingly the only creature on this planet that creates objects to create energy, i.e. power plants.
No other animal creates things such as these

 

[Leftyrem]

the ability to play fallout and kill each other by the thousands

 

[dudeman0001]

well animals can't do rhythm or music, and we're the only species with the ability to alter the landscape

Noo...
Bee's communicate through dance and whales communicate through sound frequency AKA pitch/tone.

 

[Vanguard_Ex]

-snip-

We can use logic and apply it to all situations. We can think about ways we can use our surroundings and modify them. We are different.

 

[khannah]

Sssshhhh! Don't tell anyone we are inferior...they may all gang up on us

 

[Zacharine]

Snip

If you read me earlier post where I address the OP and not your message, you'll see that we somewhat agree on the evolution part: We humans have, as a species, broken out of our ecological niche. While evolution will continue, we can force the environment adapt to us or build ourselves tools to adapt to the environment outside of evolutionary restraints (such as long periods of time).

We humans are not unique due to our brains (well, not entirely) or our ability to wield tools or capability to plan or even possibly on having an imagination.

I think what is unique about us is the combination of reasoning, planning, imagination, social abilities and inherent nature to form groups, capability to explain abstract concepts via language alone, and thus teach, in combination with our ability to wield and construct tools for specific goals, along with environmental pressure from predators, natural hazards and lack of resources pushing us to use and develop those traits. And that combination sets us apart from other species on this planet.

 

[Zacharine]

-perception of time(?)

This I'm not entirely sure of. Can birds that fly at specific weeks to other countries/continents and back again at equally spefic dates be counted to have a ability to perceive time?

Certainly they must have at the very least a rough sense of the passing of seasons and approching warm and cold periods.

 

[Spacewolf]

well on that discounted list there arnt anyothers that can do all of them is there so presumably it is the fact all those things are present in humans rather thatn just a few.

 

[creepy_rabbit]

we are the only animal that doesnt adapt to its environment, we change it to our will, and we are the only animal with moral.
wow...that does sound kinda...evil