What Makes Humans Human?

@roger,

Gorillas are bare-faced? Chimpanzees and orangutans? They all look bearded to me. And what does having a beard have to with anything? I have a beard and trust me that you can tell exactly what I'm expressing without hearing a word.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gorilla

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We look at the stars and think that some day we humans will be inhabiting outer space. Also, we have the intelligence to add jelly to our peanut butter sandwiches.

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We can exchange theories of the human spark just as scientists do - there are plenty of theories to go around (including the step we took to start eating meat (more calories per bite than fruit and nuts).

Back to NPR bites.... there are at least a couple of stories here that speak to the conglomeration that is us. There was story about how our brains developed via evolution. The scientist interviewed said that evolution is piecemeal and thrifty. Our brain wasn't redesigned at each evolutionary step, it was added to. Our lizard brain was packed over with mouse brain, our proto-monkey brain was packed on over the mouse brain. Terribly inefficient.
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=129027124

And then there is this bit - we share the same genes as yeast!

Quote:

Sherlock says that not only do many of the same genes still exist in humans and yeast, but they're so similar that you can exchange one for the other.

"There are several hundred examples where you can knock out the yeast gene, put in the human equivalent, and it restores it back to normal," he says.

Think about it, he says: We have a lot in common with yeast. Yeast consume sugars like we do, yeast make hormones like we do, and yeast have sex — not quite like we do, but sex. http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=127937070

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@littlek,

Isn't that true of most life forms on this planet? Most things are based on protein.

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@cicerone imposter,

And?

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@littlek,

and...? (where is there any refutation?) nothing I posted indicated it wasn't done in stages.

My understanding of genetic is that except for some minor percentage of genetic material, many species are quite close. BUT..the difference is what makes us what we are -- human and them not human. the pig is pretty damned close..in fact MDs use pig skin when operating on people for burn grafts.

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@Ragman,

Rag, I was asking that of CI.

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@littlek,

I know you were..and I was asking that of you for your early comments. Post: # 4,311,421

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@Ragman,

Quote:

If primates did and hand that fine motor control with digits, then my understanding would be they can write.

I'm saying that they did have opposable thumbs (and do still), just not AS opposable as ours. Rag, I'm not trying to tell you that you are wrong... I'm just trying to get discussion going.

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A very large and, as yet, imperfectly answered question.

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@littlek,

OK.

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@littlek,

Hi Littlek!

The ability to stand upright.

Have a lovely evening!
Mark...

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@littlek,

littlek wrote:

What sets apart from other mammals? What was the factor that let us advance so far beyond other animals?

Couldn't it be just because we're rigging the game with hindsight? Cheetahs have advanced far beyond other animals in sprinting. Moles have advanced far beyond other animals in digging. Humans have advanced far beyond other animals in thinking, in deliberately processing information. Every animal species, I suppose, has advanced beyond all others in something. Otherwise, whatever species it hasn't advanced over would have competed it out of its ecological niche.

So maybe the only thing special about us humans is that we're the ones asking the question. We want to believe our species is important in the grand scheme of things. Consequently, we rationalize our presumption of importance by believing that thinking must be a supremely valuable skill. Call it "the anthropic principle meets human self-importance".

Is there any mistake in the above explanation? Is there anything it doesn't explain about how advanced we supposedly are? If so, I'm not seeing it. But I'm always happy to consider counterarguments.

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Maybe, we're king of the planet, because although we may not be the best sprinter, digger, or flyer, we can invent ways to overtake whatever advantage they may have in their better ability to run, dig, or fly.

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@Thomas,

Thomas wrote:

... We want to believe our species is important in the grand scheme of things. Consequently, we rationalize our presumption of importance by believing that thinking must be a supremely valuable skill. Call it "the anthropic principle meets human self-importance".

Thinking is only important when it comes to the correct conclusions. Since much of mankind's thinking has come to incorrect conclusions, it just might be an emerging trait that is not perfected. Regardless, Spock in Star-Trek understood this. Can you make the sign of the Vulcan, without the aid of your other hand, speaking of Spock?

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@Thomas,

Quote:

Couldn't it be just because we're rigging the game with hindsight?

Absolutely!

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@littlek,

littlek wrote:

What sets apart from other mammals?

We are the only animal than can ask an abstract question, and have another member of our species understand it (even if they can't answer it).

This implies several unique skills including the ability to create detailed abstractions, and to copy those abstractions to other individuals (memes).

Much of what makes us "human" is learned from abstract information passed down through generations. To know what a "raw" human looks like you have to imagine someone raised without other human contact. Those individuals don't possess many of the basic skills that most of us take for granted and which make us "human". So it's clear that a lot of what we are is the result of a massive accumulation of learned information.

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@littlek,

littlek wrote:

What sets apart from other mammals? What was the factor that let us advance so far beyond other animals? We considered tool-making, play, communication, etc to be THE factor for long stretches of time. All of those factors have been debunked - other animals do all of the above.

I'm thinking about this because of an NPR series called How Evolution Gave Us the Human Edge. I haven't heard every episode, but what I've heard has been interesting.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=128245649

The ability to rationalize and reason, those who can't are usually deemed inhuman.

What Makes Humans Human?

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