What do you think separates humans from other animals?

[Joccaren]

One thing would be language. Whilst other species appear to have a very basic form of language, I feel that relies more on tone than on the individual sounds of the 'words' in most cases, and is only able to get across reasonably simple ideas. Human language depends on tone, what is said, how and when it is said, and is that complex that we can explain very complex ideas to one another. Language has allowed us to work together towards a common goal and advance ourselves further than any other species.

Here's some proof for you:

Why are we the ones that did that? We're by no means the first creatures on this planet with opposable thumbs, not by several million years. We're not the only species on this planet physically capable of designing, building and operating that, nor are we the first.



You want more proof? Watch the Apollo 11 launch. There's your proof. Don't want to accept that? Look at the computer you're using to post this. Look at your car. Look out your window...fuck, look at the blooming window itself. EVERYTHING you see around you exists because of human creativity. Not animal creativity. Everything around you, everything from the Saturn V rocket I posted to the clothes on your back, all of it exists because humans are more creative than any other species on this planet. The proof is literally draped over your shoulders waiting for you to accept it.

You have responded to sentience with creativity. However, all that that has proved is that humans are the first species with enough creativity, intelligence, and natural and artificial tools to complete this feat. Those other creatures with opposable thumbs may not have been as creative or intelligent as us, but something like a Dolphin might be. A dolphin however lacks the tools to accomplish something like that.
Likewise, those achievements were made by lots of people working on a complex task in unison - something language has enabled us to do yet no other animal I know of has the language complex enough to allow them to work together to achieve these sorts of things, even if they were creative and intelligent enough to do so.
Finally sentience is not necessarily creativity/intelligence. The dictionary defines it as: 'sense perception not involving intelligence or mental perception; feeling'
That has nothing to do with creativity, and I would dare say that other animals in the world have the capacity to sense things and perceive those senses. Hence why some animals will lie down of W/E before a storm, will cry out in pain, will shake water off their coats. Apollo and such has little to do with sentience, and more to do with intelligence, creativity, language, and natural and artificial capabilities. It is the result of the individual mix of traits that is humanity more than it is the fact that we can use our senses more than any other species.

 

[Joccaren]

We've done in just 200 years what the animal kingdom didn't even attempt to do in over 200 million years. Think about that for a second. The animal kingdom has had hundreds of millions of years to figure this shit out. They've had millions of different species to try with, and all the time in the world. We show up and go from living in stone buildings to landing on the motherfucking moon in just a couple hundred years. If that isn't proof that we're more creative and more intelligent than animals for you then you're a lost cause and it isn't worth even trying to open your mind a bit.


Face it, Fido is not as creative as his owner. It's that simple. And I won't buy the "But their bodies aren't fit for it" argument, because our bodies aren't fit to be the apex predator. But that didn't stop us from ruling this planet whether nature likes it or not. Mankind has the final say, if it doesn't want a species to exist that species ceases to exist. If mankind wants to eat it, mankind will eat it. And if something threatens mankind, mankind will fancy it into a nice living room decoration. If mankind wants to, mankind can wipe the entire planet free of life with the press of a button.


If animals lacking opposable thumbs had the same intelligence and creativity we do they would have figured out a way around their physical limitations just the same as we did, and we wouldn't be having this debate.

Flaws:
1. It took us thousands of years, not hundreds, to make it this far. Man was around before 0AD, and that was 2000 years ago.
2. You are arguing that he is right, which when you take such a hostile tone doesn't make a lot of sense. He is saying we don't have unique traits, but a unique mix of traits that gets us this far. You state the same thing, whilst with your tone and language implying he is wrong. No, Fido may not be as creative as his owner, but his owner doesn't have fur or claws like Fido has. Different mixes of traits.
3. We are a part of the animal kingdom's evolution to reaching the stars. If you start from our first ancestor that would eventually evolve into humans, we have taken the same amount of time as the rest of the animal kingdom to come this far, we have just made it further in that time. We are the animal kingdoms success story. We are not different from animals in some intrinsic way, indeed we actually are animals. We are just the most successful animals on the planet. Your whole tone in that section makes out that we are special, chosen and placed here by God or by aliens after animals and managed to do what they couldn't. More like it is that we are animals that have finally evolved to the point where we can achieve this.

 

[Plucky]

Maybe the major difference between us and animals is that we can survive without going natural, look at it this way, an elephant would survive in heat modestly, due to rising the blood heat in their ears and simply flapping away the heat, wheras humans just switches on a fan.


Our reliance on technology has probably gotten to the point where Humans probably wont evolve as much as animals does in the next million or so years, assuming that there isnt anything that destroys all trace of knowedge and technology.



Plus, as Humans, we're not that special, sure we can construct automotous devices and throw things, but without weapons and something to protect ourselves, do you think we can survive tiger attacks or being devoured alive by elephants? D:

 

[JesterRaiin]

What do you think separates humans from other animals?

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.

For example : we're persistently trying to invent some drugs instead of using natural medicines.

Im sorry, but thats not an example at all. Its not as if humans create drugs or medicine from nothing. All the ingrediends are there already, we just have to means to use them.

Also who decided what the natural flow of life is? Why cant the natural flow be to go into space as soon as you can, or plunder the planet and move to the next one? It works for viruses and parasites doesn't it?

- Nothing can be done out of nothing. Everything is done from something that exists, or resembles something already existing, however only people merge components into things they don't really need.
- We're pretty close to sailing into space. We reached this technological advancement across thousands of years which, compared to the age of universe is more or less "blink of an eye". Billions of billions other civilizations could evolve prior to our own, however universe is silent. We're listening but there's no answer, no sign of intelligent life anywhere. So either we're alone or natural flow of life isn't about going into space. Either way we're unnatural in what we do.
- As far as i remember i joined thread regarding differences between people and animals and not between people and virueses or parasites. Am i right ?

 

[Latinidiot]

thuuuuuuuuumbs.

Also greed.

 

[Joccaren]

Maybe the major difference between us and animals is that we can survive without going natural, look at it this way, an elephant would survive in heat modestly, due to rising the blood heat in their ears and simply flapping away the heat, wheras humans just switches on a fan.


Our reliance on technology has probably gotten to the point where Humans probably wont evolve as much as animals does in the next million or so years, assuming that there isnt anything that destroys all trace of knowedge and technology.



Plus, as Humans, we're not that special, sure we can construct automotous devices and throw things, but without weapons and something to protect ourselves, do you think we can survive tiger attacks or being devoured alive by elephants? D:

Its not technology that stops directly stops evolution. Evolution isn't like Spore or something where some part is needed, thus we evolve it. It goes more like we evolve it, and if it is useful/attractive, that specimen survives longer and breeds more and thus that trait that was evolved is spread, in a general sense. As such, technology is not inhibiting us from evolving.

There is also nothing to say we aren't evolving either. These processes take a LONG time to happen, and just because you don't notice anything that different between the man of 100 years ago and now, doesn't mean there isn't going to be any difference in a thousand years time.

 

[Benni88]

A lot of you guys are saying things about intelligence, culture, empathy and things like that, but fundamentally it all comes down to the same thing.

Humans have the largest brain, proportionate to their body, of any organism on the planet. This allows us to communicate in more complex ways, solve problems with more creativity/success and theorize on matters which do not necessarily affect us in a direct way.

Other animals are incapable of performing at the same standard of these activities as we are, but are specialised in other ways, usually with increased sensory development e.g. a dog's nose, an eagle's sight and a bat's echo location.

 

[Blunderboy]

"Weaseling out of things is important to learn. It's what separates us from the animals... except the weasel."
Homer Simpson

I?m also going to go with an inflated sense of self worth.

 

[Subbies]

We kill each other and other species for fun and giggles. Other species don't.

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.

Cats actually play with the body first and then kill it.

My point still stands. They kill for fun (or out of boredom) since in the end they don't eat the mouse.

 

[Joccaren]

- We're pretty close to sailing into space. We reached this technological advancement across thousands of years which, compared to the age of universe is more or less "blink of an eye". Billions of billions other civilizations could evolve prior to our own, however universe is silent. We're listening but there's no answer, no sign of intelligent life anywhere. So either we're alone or natural flow of life isn't about going into space. Either way we're unnatural in what we do.

-A fair period of those billions of years would have been entirely inhospitable. The universe can currently support life, but it was not always so.
-Simply because we haven't found anything yet does not mean the overwhelming majority of the universe's life isn't heading down the path of 'To Space!'. It just means that out of the minuscule part of the universe that we can see, we have not detected any signs of life. Hell, even in some of the places we have thoroughly checked for communications from there could be a beacon or something transmitting right now. Thing is, we won't know about it until years later due to the limited speed of light.

 

[teebeeohh]

so you are telling me i am an animal because i don't have religion?

i would say art.
at the point we spend energy and creativity on make things pretty instead of making them practical and more useful(painting stuff on cave walls instead of making more/better spears) we became human.
that combined with the level of intelligence we are capable of using(yes, some animals use tools and recognize themselves in the mirror WE BUILD THE FUCKING LHC, totally different levels)

 

[Subbies]

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?

We've done in just 200 years what the animal kingdom didn't even attempt to do in over 200 million years. Think about that for a second. The animal kingdom has had hundreds of millions of years to figure this shit out. They've had millions of different species to try with, and all the time in the world. We show up and go from living in stone buildings to landing on the motherfucking moon in just a couple hundred years. If that isn't proof that we're more creative and more intelligent than animals for you then you're a lost cause and it isn't worth even trying to open your mind a bit.

I guess you didn't fully understand me. I didn't say that animals are as creative as us, I said that animals are ALSO creative but not as much as humans. If you reread my post you'll see that what I've been saying is that the statement saying that "humans have something that animals lack" is wrong. We have the same mental faculties, it's just that ours are more developped. You've said it yourself: "we are more creative", this implies that animals are also creative

 

[Joccaren]

A lot of you guys are saying things about intelligence, culture, empathy and things like that, but fundamentally it all comes down to the same thing.

Humans have the largest brain, proportionate to their body, of any organism on the planet. This allows us to communicate in more complex ways, solve problems with more creativity/success and theorize on matters which do not necessarily affect us in a direct way.

Other animals are incapable of performing at the same standard of these activities as we are, but are specialised in other ways, usually with increased sensory development e.g. a dog's nose, an eagle's sight and a bat's echo location.

http://wiki.answers.com/Q/What_animal_has_the_biggest_brain_in_proportion_with_its_body

Please note that we do not have the largest brain to body ratio. In addition, a larger brain does not mean more intelligence. The argument there is invalid. Our brain's size has nothing to do with how intelligent we are, otherwise things like elephants and such with larger brains are far more intelligent than us, which I highly doubt. No, it is the way in which our brains have developed that has lead us to all these things that are different from the animal kingdom, and all those things have influenced how our brain has developed. It is as much the fault of us as the fault of our brain that we are the way we are today.

 

[JoesshittyOs]

I don't want to say "soul" because I don't think everyone believes in one, but, personally, that is one to me.

I'm going to have to go with the ability to stray from instinct and making certain decisions based on critical thinking.

Is this one of those "Dogs don't go to heaven" things?

Because I disagree strongly

 

[Subbies]

so you are telling me i am an animal because i don't have religion?

i would say art.
at the point we spend energy and creativity on make things pretty instead of making them practical and more useful(painting stuff on cave walls instead of making more/better spears) we became human.
that combined with the level of intelligence we are capable of using(yes, some animals use tools and recognize themselves in the mirror WE BUILD THE FUCKING LHC, totally different levels)

I wouldn't say so for art. Some birds (I forgot the name) build structures whose only use is being pretty. They're useless as nests and offer no camouflage and they're buildt on the ground, easy acces for predators. Their only redeeming feature is that they're pretty. These structures are used for seduction so it means that some birds have an aesthetic sense which implies a sort of art.

 

[oooooooooooooooooooooooooo]

The capacity for rationality. Mind you, I don't think its a quality that makes us superior, just different.

 

[Merkavar]

i dont think there is anything that seperates us from animals. things like religion are more like extra stuff for humans not really a seperatng factor.

and most other things i can think of that might seperate us like tools etc i seem to be able to find and exampleof animals doing the same things.

We have guns. They do not. We can communicate how to build and use guns. They can not.

 

[Benni88]

A lot of you guys are saying things about intelligence, culture, empathy and things like that, but fundamentally it all comes down to the same thing.

Humans have the largest brain, proportionate to their body, of any organism on the planet. This allows us to communicate in more complex ways, solve problems with more creativity/success and theorize on matters which do not necessarily affect us in a direct way.

Other animals are incapable of performing at the same standard of these activities as we are, but are specialised in other ways, usually with increased sensory development e.g. a dog's nose, an eagle's sight and a bat's echo location.

http://wiki.answers.com/Q/What_animal_has_the_biggest_brain_in_proportion_with_its_body

Please note that we do not have the largest brain to body ratio. In addition, a larger brain does not mean more intelligence. The argument there is invalid. Our brain's size has nothing to do with how intelligent we are, otherwise things like elephants and such with larger brains are far more intelligent than us, which I highly doubt. No, it is the way in which our brains have developed that has lead us to all these things that are different from the animal kingdom, and all those things have influenced how our brain has developed. It is as much the fault of us as the fault of our brain that we are the way we are today.

Alright, I will gladly retract the brain proportion thing, AND agree that it is the way in which the brain has been allowed to develop with marks us apart, but that really doesn't make the argument invalid. The brain IS the defining difference between us and other animal species, and the way in which it separates us is as I described it.

 

[Subbies]

thuuuuuuuuumbs.

Also greed.

If our superiority was only due to our opposable thumbs, then crabs would be the rulers of the Earth.