You are an animal. In fact, you are a monkey. You are a monkey that is part of the animal Kingdom, just like any other monkey. Just because you’re a Homo sapien does not make you ‘special’, despite what your mum tells you. I mean, if chimps can wear pants, ride
bicycles and smoke cigars, what makes us think that we are so different from them? The truth is, they’re not the only thing that we do that chimps can do, and there are some things that they can do better.
I’m going to add a disclaimer here and say that the next paragraph is my opinion, nothing more!
Humans aren’t special at all; we aren’t on any ‘higher level’ than any other animal that has ever existed. We are just another continually changing iteration of a process that has been at work since life began: evolution.
Now, many people would have you think otherwise. Living in our society, in the concrete jungle, amongst people in ‘clothes’ and far away from the vast plains and dense forests from where we came, it is easy to forget that we are in fact ‘animals’. In my experience the majority of people with whom I have spoken about this topic believe that humans are removed from all other forms of life, in one way or another. We are special. But then there are also the crazy creationists and unfortunately named Scientologists who either vehemently deny any link to the animal Kingdom, or believe we are the ‘peak’ of evolution. Why do they think this? Well, one of the key beliefs that many people have held in removing Homo sapiens from other life and placing them on a more ‘meaningful’ level above all other animals is that humans (and only humans) have the ability to be self-aware. (If only they were so aware of their crazy stories). Not so!
Recent studies demonstrate (finally) that humans basking alone in the light of self-awareness is in fact a myth.
In 2001 it was found that dolphins are self-aware – a key step towards being able to ‘think about thinking’, (also called metacognitive reasoning). Elephants and great apes have also shown themselves to be self-aware. However, even more recently and more importantly, another study has shown that chimps can anticipate the consequences of their own actions! How did researchers find this out? They taught chimps to use a computer with a trackball to control a cursor. They then did a series of tests to see if the chimp knew exactly what it was doing, including confusing it with multiple cursors, delaying the response of the cursor and removing control of the cursor altogether. The chimps knew which was their cursor more than 90% of the time!
What this means is that another of the ‘divides’ between man and ape has been broken down. I, personally, welcome our return into the animal Kingdom, when it comes. If we make friends with orangutans we won’t need to worry about losing the endangered ‘rangas’. Also, they might teach us how to climb trees like a pro’.
So we have to ask ourselves again, what does makes us so special? In my opinion: nothing, and to say so detracts from the inherent complexity of all other life on earth. Schwing.
Do you see another inherently superior quality that we humans have? Disagree with me? Let me know in the comments below.
I think I’d safely put my views like this…
If Earth were a play – the inorganic environment is the set; living organisms are the actors – then self-awareness might just be the derived ability to acknowledge that you have a script, extending this to others is something that many organisms seem to do as well (recognising they follow a script also). Free will might come from abandoning or altering one’s script, i.e., saying “screw you, evolutionary pressures and natural selection! I’m gonna’ do THIS instead and I understand the consequences!”. Hard to say what other animals may be doing that… But what science has done for us, I think, is helped us break the fourth wall and climb down off the stage and watch the play to some degree. Biology allows us to read the programme, maybe the complete script. Geology can tell us how the set was constructed. Physics can tell us how the theatre was built. Astronomy and space exploration may one day see us exiting our theatre hall and walking into the neighbouring halls, where we might find others sitting in the audience. Genetics and biochemistry might allow us to put together our own plays. So yeah, I think by some definition, we’re special – we seem to share a perspective that isn’t afforded to the other animals nor the non-sentient life forms. But sure, whether in our eventual absence or not, there’s always room for more in the audience…
Not while I’M the director!
I’ve gotta say, I disagree with you on many levels here.
One, I think we are special in respect to other organisms, in my view as social animals we’ve hit a peak in evolution. Things such as conscious thought, the utilisation and construction of advanced tools, language…. you can’t deny things like that do elevate homo sapiens on an evolutionary scale.
Two, I don’t think this idea in any way belittles the complexity of nature, if anything it does the opposite. To say that an oppurtunistic organism such as ourselves, as imperfect as we are, have become one of the dominant species on the planet says alot about the complexity of not only our environment, but the ecosystems which surround it
Well as it says in the article and linked articles, we are not the only ones with conscious thought, nor are we the only ones who make tools, and it is well known that other animals communicate.
Belittling occurs as soon as you divide individuals (or species in this case) into classes. Sure, call us special if you also call an falcon ‘special’ because it is the fastest animal that we know of.
The great apes are distinguished from monkeys, you baboon!
I think humans as animals but…kinda better…in some respects. Mainly we think a lot better than any other animal which kinda defines us in many ways. At the same time though, this thinking hasn’t always led to positive or sexy results…
uhhu! You’re saying exactly what I’m talking about! Why does it have to be ‘better’, why not just different? I mean, birds are a hell of a lot better at flying than us, but does that remove them from all other animals and put them on another level? (non-altitude speaking level, that is)…
I don’t think life originated by evolution…
But general opinion is that we are just another animal for some arguments, while being set apart and special at other times; which is obviously not consistent.
so would it be fair to at least have some consistency, at one level or another?
“Ishmael” by Daniel Quinn.
That’s all I have to say.