Life goes on

[Colodomoko]

Funny, it's ironic how this website is called The Escapist when so many threads on here talk about things many people want to escape from. I'm trying to figure out what is a human; can anyone even give me a straight definition of human? The best answer I ever got was that I think too much. Doesn't seem like much of an answer, but if you think about it, even thought that would also be ironic, it makes sense. As humans we all over-think things depending on certain situations that may reach out to some of us in ways that no one else could ever understand and therefore each one of you as an individual can understand your own opinion, but everyone else will take your opinion differently, slightly, drastically, or otherwise; that is what makes us human. For example, some of you might look at this thread and draw some conclusion that I nor anyone else ever thought of, then I and others will read your comment and draw our own conclusions from yours even when it may be some-what or completely different from yours, and even then you, I, and/or others may change their opinions later down the line or not at all. Some will never see this thread, although someone they might know someone now or in the future who have seen it and say things that relate to the conclusion they drew from the thread and forever cause the person who hasn't seen it to have their own opinion about it. Maybe some will never have an opinion on this thread at all.
Anyways, I wanted to get that out of the way so that you all might understand where I am coming from when I ask this question; What makes you, as an individual, human? To answer my own question, I have none. From my point of view there are no answers; There are only more questions. Why do I sometimes feel life an empty shell of a man when I'm bored and why do I sometimes feel like my soul is flying through the clouds whenever I listen to classic rock? Do I even have a soul? What is a soul? Do I even want to be human? I guess always having more questions than answers is what makes me human, especially when the answers I get turn into more questions; just another reason to keep going until I figure out who I am I guess. Curious to see what you guys have to say, if you can understand this thread at all, If not I recommend doing what we all do best; just wing it and comment on what you think is the right answer and the rest will hopefully lead to some kind of flowing discussion. If not, well then life goes on; more threads will be there in the future for you all, and myself, to comment on.

 

[The Thinker]

Genes. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human]

And, to avoid a LCP, let me hinder my brevity: I am a bunch of chemicals arranged in the form of a human. That's all there is. That's the answer. It's a literal-level answer, but it's my best stab at answering what I guess the question was in the first place.

 

[bobmus]

My eyes, learn to paragraph better!

'Human beings, who are almost unique in having the ability to learn from the experience of others, are also remarkable for their apparent disinclination to do so.' - Douglas Adams

Though my personal take on the matter would be:
A member of the genus Homo, and especially of the species H. sapiens.

 

[Kae]

Seems like you're being philosophical, I like that, I think that's what makes us humans as opposed to just simple animals, though we could use our intellect just to survive and adapt, we seem to have this need to know, a need to find answers to questions and ask more questions, the curiosity to try to discover, to find out how just about anything works, the ability to think of what is wrong or right, good or evil, I think that's what makes us human, and by that I just mean different from other animals, asking questions is our essence it doesn't matter if we find our answers or not, but we will never run out of questions.

 

[The Thinker]

Seems like you're being philosophical, I like that, I think that's what makes us humans as opposed to just simple animals, though we could use our intellect just to survive and adapt, we seem to have this need to know, a need to find answers to questions and ask more questions, the curiosity to try to discover, to find out how just about anything works, the ability to think of what is wrong or right, good or evil, I think that's what makes us human, and by that I just mean different from other animals, asking questions is our essence it doesn't matter if we find our answers or not, but we will never run out of questions.

Good SIR, that is the IDEALIZATION of flights of fancy and hopeless MUSINGS! CAPITAL LETTERS are what separate us from the lower animals!

 

[TehCookie]

Genes. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human]

And, to avoid a LCP, let me hinder my brevity: I am a bunch of chemicals arranged in the form of a human. That's all there is. That's the answer. It's a literal-level answer, but it's my best stab at answering what I guess the question was in the first place.

/thread

It's simple to understand why you're human. What I wonder is how/why people have different personalities, thought processes and emotional reactions.

 

[Colodomoko]

/thread

It's simple to understand why you're human. What I wonder is how/why people have different personalities, thought processes and emotional reactions.

Don't know, but it does keep things interesting, most of the time anyways. I do feel our souls are some-how linked with the emotions we have, why else would I have a big emotional reaction whenever I listen to music, which I consider the language of our emotions; I don't really know what a soul is though. I only really have a vague idea of souls being part of the big picture of what makes us all different.

 

[Bassik]

As the days go by, we face the increasing inevitability that we are alone in a Godless, uninhabited, hostile and meaningless universe. Still, you've got to laugh, haven't you?

 

[Auron225]

Honestly, Im not up long and not up for being philosophical right now but the thread title caught my eye so I thought Id leave some background music - enjoy

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y8XuMDi-wIk

EDIT: I decided to read the OP after all;

As Yahtzee once said, I'm not going to take long describing this in the same why I'm not going to take long describing the colour of a banana. Literally, we're meat sacks just like most other species. However, we can do a bunch of other things other animals can't so if you write them all down (for example, humans can be philosophical) then you can use those to define what being human is.

It's simple to understand why you're human. What I wonder is how/why people have different personalities, thought processes and emotional reactions.

I think past experiences is a big part of it. If you meant things like why we have our own tastes in music, art, etc then your guess is as good as mine.