Poll: Are you Human?

[Crossborder]

I voted yes, because my dictionary says:
hu·man
[hyoo-muhn or, often, yoo-]
-adjective
1. - of, pertaining to, characteristic of, or having the nature of people: human frailty.
Not entirely sure here. the nature of people does not have a widely accepted answer.
2. - consisting of people: the human race.
Check.
3. - of or pertaining to the social aspect of people: human affairs.
Check.
4. - sympathetic; humane: a warmly human understanding.
Check.

That's 3 out of 4.

Alright, that might be a bit simplified, but my point is I have a lot of characteristics that are defined ''human''.

 

[zfactor]

Fuck if I know.

I'm probably missing the question, but we can't know if this is reality or something else. We could all be actual creatures as easily as we could all be figments of someone else's dream (or in a simulated reality like the Matrix). So I took this question to mean "Do you think we exist?" The answer is above...

in a world where every single living thing (besides humans) grows and expands in enviroments "[e]stablished" for them and relies on instinct, being able to rationalize my actions makes me "human"

I hate it when people say this...

"We have rational thoughts, animals do not, therefore we are 'human' (and better or whatever)"

You cannot tell if animals have rational thoughts and operate on logic. I think they do, humans happened to create a system of language that gives them the ability to communicate these thoughts easily to other humans and to themselves. Animals have no established system of language to communicate their ideas, and we erroniously assume it is because they are incapable of doing so. And why is intelligence called instict in non-humans? If a bird constructs a nest from sticks to raise her young in, we call it instictual behavior. It just "knows" it has to do that. Couldn't it have figured it out by itself? It might have thought (if its thoughts were translated to english...) "Gee, I need somewhere to lay these eggs where nothing will eat me. How about a tree? Hrmm, I need to put something here first... Ohh I'll just rip off some of these things around me (sticks) and lay them down. Yays! A nest!" Or maybe it learned from its parents and from its youth. That is no different that what humans do, we learn literally everything from our enviroment (parents, experiences, etc) or logic. We call it intelligence. Animals do the same thing and we call it instict. Animals are smart too!

Sorry for the rant, I just get angry when people differentciate humans by saying they have intelligence and rational thought and animals don't. Because they probably do.

 

[UnmotivatedSlacker]

Nope, I'm actually several squirrels in a suit.

 

[topwomble]

I am human because unlike every other known organism in existence, i am aware of my own mortality.

 

[zfactor]

I constantly battle the human condition and repress all my urges and wants. Becuase society deems them wrong. I hate being human as I hate humanity in general because it is not what I want it to be and it never will be.

So yes, I am human.

So you don't hate "being human" so much as you hate "humanity." You dislike "humanity" telling you what do do as a human (an individual part of humanity). Interesting distiction you drew between the two.

 

[El Poncho]

If I am a human being, then that must mean that everything I do is human

-Why? What makes you strongly believe that you are human?I am a human being, therefore what I do is human.
What makes you unique and worthy of the life that was given to you and had yet to be taken away? I was the first sperm to the egg? I don't see how being unique means you are human. There are more than 6billion people in the world, it is hard to be unique out of 6billion people.
Do you value this life? Well I'm not putting my life at risk all the time, so, yes?
Are you happy or content? Happy I guess.

 

[press x to not die]

Human? or just a bunch of rats caught in a race HeHe

 

[Frotality]

nope; my only connection to this insipid race of monkeys is genetic, and thats debatable. ive found no single human i can relate with in even a basic way.

i categorize earth sapients in the following way: if, in the spirit of confucianism, you can contemplate a single blade of grass for hours and not get bored (in principle; i mostly mean if you think a good deal about whatever comes your way); then you are likely, for the sake of categorization, an overman/ubermensch/ what-have you. these people (again, in metaphorical principle) will find that no one else finds grass nearly as interesting as they do, and that no one cares to hear about all the neat stuff youve discovered about grass. their every attempt at socialization fails utterly when they cant help but think about subjects everyone would rather make ignorant comments about and move on. they may find others of their kind, or even some of the more uniquely-minded (could just be crazy people) humans to relate with... but i havent found any. these are the people who are scorned as outcasts and crazies their whole lives, only to be appreciated a century after their death by more 'civilized' humans; or after the masses completely abuse and misuse some invention of theirs. (you know, superman was originally a villian based on the actual nietzschean idea of 'superman'?)

however, if you are the kind that couldnt contemplate a single cutscene for 5 seconds without hitting the 'skip' button, then you are human; the same primates that not 50000 years ago beat each other with sticks for food and women. many lucky people find themselves in the middle; human enough to relate to them and have a place, if a small niche of a place, in society, but thoughtful enough to appreciate many of the finer details that escape the drooling masses. lucky bastards.

 

[Lazy Kitty]

No, I'm not.
How dare you even ask such a question?
Me, a filthy human?
Ridiculous!

Yes, because I am flawed. I have thousands of flaws. I can't be inhuman if I have problems within my very being.

[sub][sub][sub]I'm actually an alien... From the planet Vegeta... Keep your eye on the birdie![/sub][/sub][/sub]

5th post FTW XD

Too bad your planet got it by a "meteor"...

Yeah... Incidentally, do you still want us to clear Earth for you?

Yes, but I don't just want the planet cleared of life anymore, I want it cleared from the universe, because it's an ugly ball of mud.

 

[HentMas]

"We have rational thoughts, animals do not, therefore we are 'human' (and better or whatever)"

You cannot tell if animals have rational thoughts and operate on logic.

oh, yes I can, whatever you believe you can believe and we wont touch common ground because in the end there is not conclusive evidence of either one of our thoughts being true

I think they do, humans happened to create a system of language that gives them the ability to communicate these thoughts easily to other humans and to themselves. Animals have no established system of language to communicate their ideas, and we erroniously assume it is because they are incapable of doing so.

woah woah woah, i never said they cant comunicate among each other!, i stated that they are ruled by "Instinct" but i never said anything about comunication, of course i think they can (althought primitively) comunicate among each other and there is evidence of that

And why is intelligence called instict in non-humans? If a bird constructs a nest from sticks to raise her young in, we call it instictual behavior. It just "knows" it has to do that. Couldn't it have figured it out by itself? It might have thought (if its thoughts were translated to english...) "Gee, I need somewhere to lay these eggs where nothing will eat me. How about a tree? Hrmm, I need to put something here first... Ohh I'll just rip off some of these things around me (sticks) and lay them down. Yays! A nest!" Or maybe it learned from its parents and from its youth. That is no different that what humans do, we learn literally everything from our enviroment (parents, experiences, etc) or logic. We call it intelligence. Animals do the same thing and we call it instict. Animals are smart too!

you are right!! except the "line" between "instinct" and "rationalization" is when no 2 humans create the same "house" but all the nests have the same basic structure (among the same species) and "that" is why its instinct, the ability to be creative more than the ability of rational thought is one of the maing things that gives us the edge and the reason why i believe on what was stated before.

Sorry for the rant, I just get angry when people differentciate humans by saying they have intelligence and rational thought and animals don't. Because they probably do.

no need to be sorry, you raise various valid points, but i still think differently than you, thats all.

 

[Irony's Acolyte]

But yeah I'm human. We haven't really reached the point that we start to question if we left our nature as humans behind us. I am built like a human, so physically I'm one. And although my mind is unique, it still thinks in ways very similar to other humans, so mentally I'm one. And I don't really feel that my "soul" is of a different being. And I consider myself to be a human. So if I look like a human, think like a human, feel like a human, believe myself to be a human, and eat chicken like a human; then I'm probably a human.

Not to say that I wish to stay human forever. Bring on the bio-enhancements and cybernetic upgrades! I'm a transhumanist!

 

[Xojins]

Yes. Every human being is flawed, and we are not the pinnacle of evolution by any means. We're just another species on this earth that happened to develop sentient thought.

 

[bz316]

Did anyone ever read Dune? In that book, the Bene Gesserit had a test of "human-ness" for hopeful acolytes. A reverend mother (like an elder basically) would bring a black box to the hopeful, and demand she place her hand within the box. The second she did, the reverend mother would immediately grab her and place a poison needle called a gom jabbar next to her neck, threatening to kill her if she removed her hand before the test ended. The box would then induce horrific, burning pain by means of nerve manipulation. The immediate instinct would be to try and escape the pain, but to do so would mean instant death. Some succeeded and made it to the point where they could remove their hands, others were killed. The purpose of the test was to see if the acolyte could use her will and reason to overcome her immediate instincts. I'd say if this is true of you, you measure pretty high on the "human scale."

 

[topwomble]

nope; my only connection to this insipid race of monkeys is genetic, and thats debatable. ive found no single human i can relate with in even a basic way.

i categorize earth sapients in the following way: if, in the spirit of confucianism, you can contemplate a single blade of grass for hours and not get bored (in principle; i mostly mean if you think a good deal about whatever comes your way); then you are likely, for the sake of categorization, an overman/ubermensch/ what-have you. these people (again, in metaphorical principle) will find that no one else finds grass nearly as interesting as they do, and that no one cares to hear about all the neat stuff youve discovered about grass. their every attempt at socialization fails utterly when they cant help but think about subjects everyone would rather make ignorant comments about and move on. they may find others of their kind, or even some of the more uniquely-minded (could just be crazy people) humans to relate with... but i havent found any. these are the people who are scorned as outcasts and crazies their whole lives, only to be appreciated a century after their death by more 'civilized' humans; or after the masses completely abuse and misuse some invention of theirs. (you know, superman was originally a villian based on the actual nietzschean idea of 'superman'?)

however, if you are the kind that couldnt contemplate a single cutscene for 5 seconds without hitting the 'skip' button, then you are human; the same primates that not 50000 years ago beat each other with sticks for food and women. many lucky people find themselves in the middle; human enough to relate to them and have a place, if a small niche of a place, in society, but thoughtful enough to appreciate many of the finer details that escape the drooling masses. lucky bastards.

My God what a pretentious insipid block of text. I can tell that you know nothing about people and that you are one of these nerds who talk about 'people' as if that they are better than them. Of course all people believe themselves to be above everyone else, no one thinks of themselves as 'part of the crowd' but this is just way too far.
Perhaps if you talked to people you would realise that 'average' is not the same as 'stupid' and that everyone on this thread can see past your thin veil of sardonism , made in an attempt to justify yourself better than your fellows.

Troll.

 

[The Chad]

"A member of the genus Homo and especially of the species H. sapiens."

dude, we're a species just like any other. Simple as that. Our brains are more developed than other animals. A bull might be stronger, a cheetah might be faster, some species can fly, some can breathe underwater. Our trait is that we are intelligent and have opposing fingers... unlike monkeys which have opposing fingers but are agile instead of intelligent

Basically life is exactly the same as Fallout...

EDIT:in fact i'm done here, going to go play some new vegas...

 

[Bloodstain]

I am human. I have flaws. I make mistakes.

Am I happy or content? No.

 

[Dr Snakeman]

I appreciate art. I have been awestruck by Tchaikovsky's 1812 overture. I enjoy the occasional Shakespeare binge. I teared up at Toy Story 3.

I feel a sense of duty to my country and to the human race in general. I yearn for a sense of belonging. Romantic love is one of my highest goals. I get angry, sad, happy when the situation calls for it. I have stood on top of a mountain with not a single sign of human life around, and I have felt insignificant and immensely powerful at the same time.

I have the capacity to do both terrible and wonderful things, depending upon the conditions surrounding me, and what my mind resolves to do. I am capable of religious experience.

Yes, I am human.

Does that satisfactorily answer your question?

 

[Hashime]

The question is really what makes us human. I consider myself human, but like everyone else there is no other person like me. In terms of collective similarities I am different more so due to a lack of tangible emotion, hyper-rationality and high intelligence. I do like the rest of humanity get bored, feel pain and have things I enjoy, but I can honestly say I am never happy, just content in the moment.

 

[freakyalex]

I hit no, though more out of wishful thinking than anything else. It just really irritates me, thinking of myself as one of the masses. This may sound extremely egotistical, but I hate being considered as 'just another person'. I want to be something different, special, unique, and by the gods I'll do everything in my power to achieve that dream.

Except a Faustian Pact.