What do you think separates humans from other animals?
- Thread starter CulixCupric
- Start date
Recommended Videos
I'm with Wushu Panda on this one. How the hell do you know what an animal is thinking? Yes, they don't have our technology. For the overwhelming number of species, this is down to musculature. Simians are gifted with having the ability to manipulate objects to a far greater extent than most species. As to why gorillas and orangutans aren't building rocket ships, give them a few more million years of evolution and I'm sure they will be (provided we don't wipe them out first).TestECull said:
In my personal experience, animals quite clearly exhibit emotions and are most definitely self-aware. On an intellectual level, I'd say humans are identical to animals. I mean, really, what the hell is the difference? Genetically speaking we're almost identical to most of the mammals on the planet. What on Earth is unique about us that makes us the only species of being creative, imaginative, rational? There's nothing that leaps out unless you subscribe to a religion that tells you otherwise. As, I like to think, a fairly rational human, I choose to side with the evidence and state that animals are just as sentient as any human until someone gives me evidence to the contrary.
So that's my answer, by the way. The shape of our hands give us an advantage over the majority of species, and the size of our brains over those species closest to us that has allowed our technology to increase faster than other species. And that is it.
This is about as spot on as it gets. 'Why' indeed.The Madman said:
Human beings follow every other animal trend, for the most part. We expand, replicate, and fight for dominance (Which we've pretty much won, which may explain why we seem so hell bent on fighting each other for it).
Sentience, as I understand it, is the ability to see the box your in. Human beings are sentient because we recognize our place in a vast system, which we call nature.Nouw said:
Animals are not sentient, because though they may make intelligent choice, and perhaps make use of tools, they can only comprehend whats inside the system with them. They don;t see the whole, only the parts next to them.
Likewise, the search for a sentient computer program is not necessarily one that can think for itself, but one that can recognize what it is and where it exist - A program that can know that its inside a computer, and actually know what that means (And no, programming 'I am a program inside of a computer' does not count. No computer program to date can actually comprehend whats going on, or even what its doing. Its just billions of light switches going on and off).
Anyway, that's my understanding of sentience. Or what I've read, anyway. It is a weird subject.
How exactly do you figure animals are as intellectual as us, if i may ask? If they can't create like us, plan like us, or contemplate existence like us, then how can they be as intelligent?Azahul said:
I guess what I'm asking is, what is your measure of intellect.
Side Note: Dolphins are actually dumber then dogs, and no closer to human cognitive capacity then your average reptile. They're also child murdering rapist.
"Man is the only animal that laughs and weeps; for he is the only animal that is struck with the difference between what things are, and what they ought to be." - William Hazlitt
There's many a thing one could think of.
I'd go for big brains and hands. Walking on our hind legs so we have our hands free, even though it's generally a bad idea on ice.
Intelligence is said to be higher in humans than other species, but I take it that is to be taken with a grain of salt.
I've seen dogs and apes and crows do some evil and nasty stuff, like not so cute monkeys ripping other apes to pieces just for some territorial clan thing, dogs going berserk because trigger x freaked them out or crows killing other birds out of what looked like nothing more but boredom.
But when it comes to evil, mankind is king. There's no creature as nasty as we are. Religion is a cool concept to ward off evil, but even that hasn't stopped us being evil and nasty and selfish and vile and silly-stupid creatures. On came communism, which limited the number of genuine evil individuals, and maximized the number of victims. The French Revolution cost a lot of people their heads. While Christianity meanwhile sits in the corner wearing the Jackass hat, other religions step in to deliver our daily dose of witch-burning, hangings and beheadings. You need to teach people to be decent and good.
You don't need to teach them to become raping, ravaging, raving-mad murdering maniacs - they come up with that themselves, be it with knives and guns, or just a simple piece of wood.
I'd go for big brains and hands. Walking on our hind legs so we have our hands free, even though it's generally a bad idea on ice.
Intelligence is said to be higher in humans than other species, but I take it that is to be taken with a grain of salt.
I've seen dogs and apes and crows do some evil and nasty stuff, like not so cute monkeys ripping other apes to pieces just for some territorial clan thing, dogs going berserk because trigger x freaked them out or crows killing other birds out of what looked like nothing more but boredom.
But when it comes to evil, mankind is king. There's no creature as nasty as we are. Religion is a cool concept to ward off evil, but even that hasn't stopped us being evil and nasty and selfish and vile and silly-stupid creatures. On came communism, which limited the number of genuine evil individuals, and maximized the number of victims. The French Revolution cost a lot of people their heads. While Christianity meanwhile sits in the corner wearing the Jackass hat, other religions step in to deliver our daily dose of witch-burning, hangings and beheadings. You need to teach people to be decent and good.
You don't need to teach them to become raping, ravaging, raving-mad murdering maniacs - they come up with that themselves, be it with knives and guns, or just a simple piece of wood.
fucking for pleasure's sake instead of breeding...
oh wait... chimpanzees...
well, opposable thumbs for videogaming... though you don't really need them for Beat 'em ups
:/
well, not that much difference then, eh?
Oh wait, the ability to argue on the internet 8D
That's pretty much human-exclusive!
oh wait... chimpanzees...
well, opposable thumbs for videogaming... though you don't really need them for Beat 'em ups
:/
well, not that much difference then, eh?
Oh wait, the ability to argue on the internet 8D
That's pretty much human-exclusive!
-Intelligence? No: humans aren't the only intelligent creatures, animals are also capable of establishing strategies to get food, hunt and other things, even ants have intelligence, nt as individuals but as a colonie the can create amasing structures designed to adapt to the environment.
-Self awareness? Nope: all mammals are self aware and most are capable of thinking and planning for the future.
-Tools? Again no: crows, and other birds are capable of not only choosing a twig to get at bugs beneath the bark of trees, but also building better tools with said twigs to make them more efficient. Primates as well and beavers build dams.
-Creativaty? Wrong again: as said before elephants and dogs have painted pictures, so have primates.
-Language? No: all animals have language: pheromones, screaches and cries, bird songs and marking physicaly their territory is a sign of language.
-Religion? We can't know for sure if other animals have religion but remeber that elephant mourn their dead and can stay by the body of a deceased of their pack for days fending of scavangers.
-Technology and soul? BS technologie is the same as tools, and as with religion, you can't tell for the soul. Hell we don't even know what soulls are, let alone if they exist.
-Ego? Come on animals care about themselves, not about you. Thats also ego.
We don't have something that animals don't. We have the same, it's just that we have MORE of certain things and LESS of others. We are smarter, have more tools, are capable of projecting ourselves farther in the future, have a more developped language, more creativaty. Anything that implies the use of our brain is better than whatever animals can come up with. But on the other hand we have less fur, no claws, less stregth (in certain cases), etc. Get the picture?
-Self awareness? Nope: all mammals are self aware and most are capable of thinking and planning for the future.
-Tools? Again no: crows, and other birds are capable of not only choosing a twig to get at bugs beneath the bark of trees, but also building better tools with said twigs to make them more efficient. Primates as well and beavers build dams.
-Creativaty? Wrong again: as said before elephants and dogs have painted pictures, so have primates.
Who cares about for how much the paintings sold? A kindergarderner also paints shitty paintings, nevertheless it's proof of creativity. Are you saying that an child is as creative as an elephant, cause I can tell you that kids have a wild imagination, aka creativity.TestECull said:
-Language? No: all animals have language: pheromones, screaches and cries, bird songs and marking physicaly their territory is a sign of language.
-Religion? We can't know for sure if other animals have religion but remeber that elephant mourn their dead and can stay by the body of a deceased of their pack for days fending of scavangers.
-Technology and soul? BS technologie is the same as tools, and as with religion, you can't tell for the soul. Hell we don't even know what soulls are, let alone if they exist.
-Ego? Come on animals care about themselves, not about you. Thats also ego.
We don't have something that animals don't. We have the same, it's just that we have MORE of certain things and LESS of others. We are smarter, have more tools, are capable of projecting ourselves farther in the future, have a more developped language, more creativaty. Anything that implies the use of our brain is better than whatever animals can come up with. But on the other hand we have less fur, no claws, less stregth (in certain cases), etc. Get the picture?
Yes they do: cats kill mice, play with the body and then leave it to rot. Another example: wolves. Do you know why wolves are hated and feared by sheperds? Wolves, when they hunt sheep, don't just kill one or two (just enough to eat) but as far as 20 or 30. Why? cause there's so many that they can't stop and don't care if one is enough.Adam Jensen said:
First of all i don't think we're just animals. Most things we do, the way we live, things we value is far from natural flow of life and that is both the proof that we're not animals and answer to your question i guess.CulixCupric said:
For example : we're persistently trying to invent some drugs instead of using natural medicines.
Our ability to communicate, everything else is build on that. We can communicate complex ideas, over vast distances, to a wide variety of audiences, and we can preserve that communication for future generations, as well as understand and learn from communications from previous generations.