Is there anything that makes humans unique?

[Canadamus Prime]

Hatred. We're the only creatures on Earth capable of hatred.

 

[The Sorrow]

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

What? Animals fight and kill other animals all the time other then food. Even primates are not unknown to kill other primates for sheer shits and giggles.

Food isn't the only thing.
Control of a pack.
Life and limb.
Practicality tends to drive animal violence. That's my point.

 

[quiet_samurai]

We can recognize ourselves in mirrors.
Actually dolphins can to.

So can chimps and other higher primates.

 

[War Penguin]

Writing and the curiosity to know more about life and existence (well, SOME humans think about that).

 

[Irridium]

We can recognize ourselves in mirrors.
Actually dolphins can to.

So can chimps and other higher primates.

huh, I did not know that, I just got learned.

 

[quiet_samurai]

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

What? Animals fight and kill other animals all the time other then food. Even primates are not unknown to kill other primates for sheer shits and giggles.

Food isn't the only thing.
Control of a pack.
Life and limb.
Practicality tends to drive animal violence. That's my point.

I didn't say food was the only reason, chimps have been known to commit murder not driven by practicality. I've seen videos of male chimps that will just scurry up to an infant of the same family and kill it for no reason.

 

[Verp]

Animals do enjoy sex. I know of many mammals and birds that are frequent masturbators.

And everybody who says we suck, well, not exactly. Did you know humans are the premiere long-distance runners of the planet? If you pit a great human runner against a great racehorse, the human will still be going when the horse dies of cardiac arrest. A human won't beat a horse in an hour, but in 24 hours the human will be miles ahead of the horse. Of course I think a lot of that has to do with the fact that no animal would volunteer to train itself for ultrarunning so we haven't explored the animal's ability to adapt to fanatical exercise.

I sign this. Humans have a lot of stamina, not many animals can follow migrating herds of large herbivores while lugging their stuff and their offspring with them.

 

[The Sorrow]

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

What? Animals fight and kill other animals all the time other then food. Even primates are not unknown to kill other primates for sheer shits and giggles.

Food isn't the only thing.
Control of a pack.
Life and limb.
Practicality tends to drive animal violence. That's my point.

I didn't say food was the only reason, chimps have been known to commit murder not driven by practicality. I've seen videos of male chimps that will just scurry up to an infant of the same family and kill it for no reason.

I suppose they're an abnormality, then.

 

[Mad Maniac with axe-firing chainsaw]

We're smart enough to make moral decisions and manipulate our environments better than any other species by far. Other than that we die and rot like other animals. Thats pretty much it in our opinion.

However far technology advances, we will always be biological creatures linked by evolution to single-celled organisms. We're larger and smarter, but the fundamentals are the same, so from a biologists perspective; no, we're not any different.

 

[quack35]

We invented the fucking internet.

Let's see a dolphin do that.

 

[DoomyMcDoom]

we have what is known as ambition, which leads us to do things that aren't in the least bit natural in order to achieve things... i mean what other animal has started world scale wars. paved massive areas of land. caused the extinction of multiple other species... or just plain unnaturally "evolved" themselves externally... i mean we do have a much higher level of technological evolution than we do pure animal adaptation y'know... so yeah just my 2 cents, when chimps build factories to arm themselves and go try and murder everything else... then tell me we aint the most ambitious...

 

[Verp]

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

What? Animals fight and kill other animals all the time other then food. Even primates are not unknown to kill other primates for sheer shits and giggles.

Food isn't the only thing.
Control of a pack.
Life and limb.
Practicality tends to drive animal violence. That's my point.

I didn't say food was the only reason, chimps have been known to commit murder not driven by practicality. I've seen videos of male chimps that will just scurry up to an infant of the same family and kill it for no reason.

I suppose they're an abnormality, then.

No, they are not. It's not just chimps and infanticide, many animals kill for shits and giggles when they already have plenty of food. Brown hyenas kill baby seals for no apparent reason other than amusement when their stomachs are full, domestic cats actually kill MORE when they are well fed and healthy than when they are hungry, dolphins kill porpoises and other dolphins for their amusement. And these are just some of the most notable examples.

 

[iTeamKill]

We have the ability to be shallow and superficial, and conjure up the urge to remove mass amounts of body hair.

Fuck that, you ever own a African Grey? Those birds are so vain, he will spend hours a day picking out unwanted feathers. When ever they are not part of the conversation, he will dance around and talk over you until someone pays attention to him... Don't even put a camera near him. You'll never get it back...

 

[Th3_Gr1ffyn]

the humans will to survive over their need for others.

if you just got lost, then i'm trying to say that humans will do anything to survive, even to the point of needless killing.

please don't point out carnivore animals, because thats not needless killing

 

[Verp]

the humans will to survive over their need for others.

if you just got lost, then i'm trying to say that humans will do anything to survive, even to the point of needless killing.

please don't point out carnivore animals, because thats not needless killing

You're not making any sense -- if the "needless killing" is vital for your survival, how the hell is it needless?

 

[XxNoMercyxX]

Humans have the ability to rationalize and think things through.
Sadly, we rarely ever use it.

Sad, but true.

 

[SilentHunter7]

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.

Intelligence isn't what sets us apart from the rest of the animal kingdom. A monkey is intelligent. They know that if you smash a coconut with a rock, it's easier to break.

But we humans are driven by more than just our base instincts, and observations. No animal yet has showed the higher level of thinking that humans display. You'll never see a monkey look to the night sky and wonder if they're alone in the universe. You'll never see a lion in the Savannah wondering if they will see their dead mate again when they die.

That's what makes us special.

If that's too philosophical for you, here's the tl;dr version:

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Show me any other creature that we know of that is capable of that.

 

[EnzoHonda]

The fact that we even ask this question is what makes us unique.

 

[cocoadog]

Circumcision?