Is there anything that makes humans unique?
- Thread starter TwistedEllipses
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A bird builds it's nest, but it will not build a roof over it, it is physically impossible for their brains to comprehend that. A monkey uses sticks and stones, but like a bird, they have not evolved since. A man build an axe at one point, and remained like that for almost a million years, we could not build anything better, it was like a birds nest to us, we lacked the mutation that gave us what we have now. In about a single moment in our evolutionary history a man started building all kinds of different tools and weapons, huts and tents...no one really knows how or why for sure, but for some reason our species mutated so that allows our brains to comprehend very complex structures and ideas that no other animal can.RivFader86 said:
Wait a thousand years, and the monkeys and apes are most likely still throwing sh1t and picking termites with a stick, while we have most likely spread to other planets by then.
Also, our immune system is superior to anything on the planet, our language, our hands (yes others have thumbs and fingers, but no other animal can use then in such pin-point accuracy and efficiency)...we are the best omnivorous animal on the planet...etc..etc.
Come on, we are the only species on the planet that can kill any other species and wipe them off of the planet if we wish so....no other species even has near that kind of power....WE CAN MOVE A FUCKING MOUNTAIN WHEN WE WANT TO.
I see there are like 8 pages of crap and I don't have time to waste reading all of it.. but I am guessing someone is going to try to pull the whole Hypothetical Soul thing into equation? And if they did and or do, there is no way to prove or not prove anything so it is a mute arguement.
Although I will say that one thing that makes us more different that most other animals, is not only do we use tools, we primarily use tools. We don't really have the characteristics to unarmed take on a bear as perhaps another animal might (unless I guess your Chucka' Norrr'uuus). But we have physically been de-evolving our physical characteristics in trade of focusing on a reliance on tools to do anything. You NEEEEED tools to live or you would die, and if not of boredom! Take a human.. put them in an empty room with nothing... see how long it takes till they start talking to themselves and looking for paint shavings to give names to and hold conversations with.
Although I will say that one thing that makes us more different that most other animals, is not only do we use tools, we primarily use tools. We don't really have the characteristics to unarmed take on a bear as perhaps another animal might (unless I guess your Chucka' Norrr'uuus). But we have physically been de-evolving our physical characteristics in trade of focusing on a reliance on tools to do anything. You NEEEEED tools to live or you would die, and if not of boredom! Take a human.. put them in an empty room with nothing... see how long it takes till they start talking to themselves and looking for paint shavings to give names to and hold conversations with.
Someone could have said exactly that a million years ago about humans (or what would eventualy become humans) yes maybe in a thousand years monkey are still using sticks but maybe in two thousand years they start advancing and do so 10 times as fast as humans...i know this sounds ridicoulus but my point is that you can't say something is unique simply by looking at how advanced it is at the time...come to thing of it it's hard to say anything that is evolving is unique...temporarily unique maybe yes. But i guess the whole discussion could go on for years and years and would never get anywhere.Katul said:
PS: there are actualy birds that build nests like little huts on the ground saw it on tv a few years back but can't remember their name ;P
Ironic said:1) Yes, we are unique in that front. Building equipment. Chance the environment, we adapt, most animals die, we win.Patrick_and_the_ricks said:
2) No other animal eats as much different foods as we do, or are even able to eat.
3) I'm just saying that over 60% of the population is not very intelligible, but the smaller minority is, and the fraction of us actually is capable of the things that gives us what we have now.
4) We are not the most numerous species on the planet by far. Yet we have the best immune system...sure numbers help, and is one of the factor in it, but it does not remove the fact that we DO HAVE the best immune system, no matter how
5) Almost all animals live as long as they do in the wild. You take any other mammal and give it the perfect living conditions, the human still wins. There over 60-70 year old people in almost every "wild" human population, it's just that they die more easily than young ones, but no other mammal CAN even life that long, by it's biology.
6) No, human female has swollen breasts all through their lifes after puberty, they get larger in pregnancy yes, but no other mammal has them swollen all the time.
7) Well, we don't have claws, teeth, poisons, muscle, horns, speed etc..etc. Our nails are for fruits, our teeth are for fruits and grinding mostly plants and soft material. Our legs are for elevation and for freeing our hands. In simple, we have NONE of the typical hunter carnivorous animal features that would even give slightest hint to an alien, that we would actually hunt in the wild. None our physical attributes other than the capability to sweat give any hint that we hunt. (Sweating is crucial when chasing faster prey, where they die eventually to overheating, while we still can keep up....but in a lot slower pace)
8) Our brains is our "natural", it's like saying hyenas can't naturally process almost totally rotten meat, it's their stomachs.
10) No need for intelligence for language. The second most complex language is though of to belong to Prairie dog, and it has no extra-ordinary spiritual skills. Whales, dogs, bats, monkeys....everything communicates. Sure intelligence doesn't hurt, but you can't teach an ape/monkey to speak like we do, they do not have the genes or even the physiology to produce sounds like we do, we are "designed" to speak as complicated as we do, intelligence came second.
11) True. Again, intelligence = natural feature.
12) We are apes not monkeys yes, our brains are the most complex structure in the cosmos, if you measure both the functionality and structure. As in saying, you can blend 10 000 brains in a bowl, but it won't be a "functioning structure". I don't know how to rephrase this any further sry.
13) You missed the "as fast" part...and plankton only created gasses, we do that thousands times faster even 100 years ago. Plankton < factory. But this does tangent the intelligence again, but does not exclude it from being a unique feature BECAUSE of
14) Again, yes it's an "offspring" of our intelligence, but again it's a valid point that makes us unique. You cannot deduct everything to it's basic, even our intelligence is because of our genes, and our genes are because of our evolutionary path, and that is because of natural selection, and so on...Intelligence can create unique features in a species, and also limit them as well. A bird will never learn to build a roof, although it is "intelligent" to build a base.
15) You noticed<3
16) Yes other animals treat wounded, apes/monkeys even medicate, but we do it far better than any other....that was my point.
18) Bacteria wins almost everything, but they are never considered in the food chain, because of being single cellular life forms and do not have....well...they are a single cell.
19) Intelligence gives birth to numerous features, unique to human. Other animals are intelligent enough to have these features, but at times do not have anything common to human. Thus being defined to a species and it's set of UNIQUE features.
20) Partly yes, but is proven, but again...intelligence can give birth to unique ways to kill, but that does not remove the fact that we are violent by nature even....and if we would be violent BECAUSE of our intelligence (lol) that would not remove the fact that we would be violent.
Well, I think I can knock Rocky Ground #3 into the disproved category. There are lots of animals that aren't the natural predator of anything. Even if you don't want to include herbivors there is an entire category of animals that eat meat without being a predator. Scavengers. Vultures and centipedes will eat whatever comes there way and yet you'll never see one actively pursuing prey. Even if you don't want to include Scavengers on the list your stuck with other omnivors such as the raccoon, who will eat pretty much anything but, again, will never be caught actively pursuing one target.carnkhan4 said:
So yeah, not being a predator, or being the predator of multiple animals, is acually quite common in the animal kingdom. And if you were trying to say that humans aren't the prey of any creature (essentially that we are at the top of the food chain) I would ask what ticks and mosquitos are doing when they're sucking our blood. They're not large enough to kill us but there is no argument they are using us as prey. On the opposite side of the spectrum, name an animal that kills lions for food. Either way you go humans are not unique in this category.
As has been said earlier, perception of time should at least be Rocky Ground. Birds know when it is time to migrate and buffalo will start on their migratory patterns far before it is physically required of them to. In a more complete rebuttal, the concept of farming (which has been proved to be existant in ants) demands of it the concept of the recognition of time. If you did not comprehend that as time passes the fungi that you plant will grow larger, there would be no rationale for not consuming them immediately, let alone planting more.
Farming, which you have already agreed is not unique to humans, proves that a species recognizes the concept of time at least in so much as it is time passing. Perhaps it wouldn't comprehend what 3:00 was but an animal that farmed would have to know that one day was seperate and distinct from another in order to know when to reap what it had sowed.
I would put that in Disproved if it were me, but at the very least it should be in Rocky Ground.
Oh (last one for now, I promise), I would like to restate that we have no quantitative measure of appreciation. Meaning we can't judge that animals do not appreciate art and music. Similarly, quite a few elephants take up the pass-time of painting when they are found in zoos. It's easy to argue that this is merely a trained action and they get no enjoyment from their effort but, by the same token, you can't prove that they dont and the art is physically present. Also, as I've said many times before, elephants bury the bones of their dead which requires elephants to have some sense of morality. Perhaps a differeing morlity to ours, perhaps one far more basic and less human, but morality nonetheless. Otherwise they would have no reason to move the bones of their dead. As is, elephants consider leaving the bones unburied wrong. That should be a proof of some sense of morality.
So Unique #1 and Unique #3 I would move to either Rocky Ground or Disproved. I'll tackle Unique #2 later.
I apologize for leaping to my churlish conclusion.Cocal said:
Although... Many social insects construct their own dwellings from the ground up (paper wasps, termites, etc). So maybe you're onto something if you combine it with the tool aspect:
No animal uses tools to construct dwellings.
I can't think of a counter-example.
Well, I know that, say beavers build "homes" but have you ever had a beaver make a supermarket where we, as humans, never have to hunt for our own food, I mean someone dose at the very being in of the chain, and people do it for "sport" but nothing else on this earth has a place where it can automatically receive food for an exchange. Or say Air Conditioning, we made that to be more comfortable. I'm just saying that we invent things so that our life is not as harsh or complex as others.RufusMcLaser said:
no we really cant... people will always fight. as long as one person tries too fight, no such thing as worldpeace exists *edit* also crime will always be aroundTheTygerfire said:
