What has made us different?

[Left Now]

-Well we are humans,and as all of us know this,humans are animals or as some philosophers say,they are speaking animals.Well,now i just want to know that, what has made us different from other animals?And why?

[jaxian rhyder]

That's wat I've always wondered

[Left Now]

It was always an annoying question for me...

W H A T H A S M A D E U S D I F F E R E N T ?

[Harry Smith]

-Well we are humans,and as all of us know this,humans are animals or as some philosophers say,they are speaking animals.Well,now i just want to know that, what has made us different from other animals?And why?

Because our genes have evolved and adapted over time

[Left Now]

Because our genes have evolved and adapted over time

Why this different?The whales genes evolved over time too,so why we became this from our basic animal and whale became that from its basic animal?

Still there is a missing loop here,why just for we humans?It is really annoying and gonna blow my mind up!

[Harry Smith]

Why this different?The whales genes evolved over time too,so why we became this from our basic animal and whale became that from its basic animal?

Still there is a missing loop here,why just for we humans?It is really annoying and gonna blow my mind up!

We all started of millions of years ago as carbon based sea animals, then as oxygen levels increased we were able to respire through the air, this meant we could survive on land. Then we began to split off which weaker less adaptable animals dieing.

For example whales started off as horses that were based near water, they then learnt how to swim, then they stayed in the water and then they didn't need legs meaning they evolved it away

[Left Now]

We all started of millions of years ago as carbon based sea animals, then as oxygen levels increased we were able to respire through the air, this meant we could survive on land. Then we began to split off which weaker less adaptable animals dieing.

For example whales started off as horses that were based near water, they then learnt how to swim, then they stayed in the water and then they didn't need legs meaning they evolved it away

Still something is lost here!Why there is not any other wiser animal in the globe?As you know animals are instinctive and their acts are based on their instincts.As animals,we are instinctive too,but our works are not completely based on our instincts,we more think about what we really want to do.

For example,there is thirsty group of people in a desert who have lost their way and do not have any water to drink,there is a little baby in the group too;When this group find drinking water,first they will let the baby drink and then they will,even if the others are not that baby's parents.But now imagine another group like this but full of for example animals;

When they find water,they won't wait to think about the other younger members of the group who need water more than them.They will only drink,maybe just their parents will let them drink first but not the others...

By "different" i mean such things like this.

[Miserabilia]

The proces of contiousnes is very complicated in humans, are far more advanced brains allow us to really think which is something only humans can really do. Sure, there are some other animals proven to be concious, and some animals are very intelligent, but our complicated speech and communication and thoughts are what makes us different

[Left Now]

The proces of contiousnes is very complicated in humans, are far more advanced brains allow us to really think which is something only humans can really do. Sure, there are some other animals proven to be concious, and some animals are very intelligent, but our complicated speech and communication and thoughts are what makes us different

Exactly!But it is really strange why we have been chosen by nature to be the most complicated.

[Miserabilia]

Exactly!But it is really strange why we have been chosen by nature to be the most complicated.

We havent been chosen ofcourse, we just evolved in this way, and we were the only animals that evolved this way, simply by pure luck and coincidence.

[Left Now]

We havent been chosen ofcourse, we just evolved in this way, and we were the only animals that evolved this way, simply by pure luck and coincidence.

But you know,it seems a bit illogical for me;A world just based on luck?Maybe we had something else which deserves this evolution!Something which is still unknown for today's human knowledge.

[Miserabilia]

But you know,it seems a bit illogical for me;A world just based on luck?Maybe we had something else which deserves this evolution!Something which is still unknown for today's human knowledge.

no, just imagine this:

Humans in their earliest form were very weak, and very average. And with their quulities they were easy preys for the large predetors. But because of just the right combination of swiftnes they survived for a while. But then, a few carried the gene that causes the brain to make more ascociations.

So, when a large predator always hunts at the same spot, the "dumb" humans will just continue to sit there and relax, while the "smart' humans have figured out the predator always hunts in the same spot, and runs away.

And because the humans were not very good fighters, the dumb ones didnt survive.
And this goes on and on

[Left Now]

no, just imagine this:

Humans in their earliest form were very weak, and very average. And with their quulities they were easy preys for the large predetors. But because of just the right combination of swiftnes they survived for a while. But then, a few carried the gene that causes the brain to make more ascociations.

So, when a large predator always hunts at the same spot, the "dumb" humans will just continue to sit there and relax, while the "smart' humans have figured out the predator always hunts in the same spot, and runs away.

And because the humans were not very good fighters, the dumb ones didnt survive.
And this goes on and on

It is what all the animals do;experience will make instinct,running away is an instinctive act;But remember,still the other animals will run away from a predator,while now humans will make traps for them.It is not instinctive,it is logic.

Why should an animal still do what it was doing in the past for an event,but human change its way of dealing with that event?

[Miserabilia]

It is what all the animals do;experience will make instinct,running away is an instinctive act;But remember,still the other animals will run away from a predator,while now humans will make traps for them.It is not instinctive,it is logic.

Why should an animal still do what it was doing in the past for an event,but human change its way of dealing with that event?

because the animals have different qualities to help them survive. intelligence is just one of those qualities

[Left Now]

because the animals have different qualities to help them survive. intelligence is just one of those qualities

Yes,but why it became very better in humans?

[Miserabilia]

Yes,but why it became very better in humans?

Because once our intelligence increases, our other skills become less nescecairy, and our intelligence increases again etc.
But with animals they already survived without it, so they dont need it.

[Left Now]

Because once our intelligence increases, our other skills become less nescecairy, and our intelligence increases again etc.
But with animals they already survived without it, so they dont need it.

Maybe,but still i am not satisfied.

[britishboy]

evolution gave us a powerful brain, which gave us everything eles

[Charlie48]

mutation

[Capto]

Our sense of community, in my opinion.

[britishboy]

Our sense of community, in my opinion.

your 50 years out of date lol

[Capto]

your 50 years out of date lol

You mean 50,000?

[britishboy]

You mean 50,000?

no I mean communities used to be popular but theyre dying down now

[Capto]

no I mean communities used to be popular but theyre dying down now

You do realise that I mean community in the sense of society or gathering, correct?

[tovaris]

SOme say it is the fact we recognise ourselves in the miror, some animals do. Others say ith that we build shelters, animals do. The only thing that realy sets us apart is how selfdestructive we are and how destructive we are to this planet.

[Miserabilia]

SOme say it is the fact we recognise ourselves in the miror, some animals do. Others say ith that we build shelters, animals do. The only thing that realy sets us apart is how selfdestructive we are and how destructive we are to this planet.

That doesnt make much sense....
the difference is obviously that humans have a complicated proces of combining logic and ascociations with our conciousnes, making us the only animals that can "think"

[tovaris]

That doesnt make much sense....
the difference is obviously that humans have a complicated proces of combining logic and ascociations with our conciousnes, making us the only animals that can "think"

one word...
Dolphins

[Miserabilia]

one word...
Dolphins

Sigh I hate it when people bring up dolphins...
yes, dolphins are "smart", yes dolphins are concious, but dolphins onl have an intelligence that seems incredibly small compared to a humans.
Compared to other animals, dolphins are smarter, but not exceptional. Humans are. Humans have an extremely complicated combination of primal urges, free thoughts, concious, unconcious, thousands of possibilities and calculations in just seconds. For where you could make a computer resembling a dolphins brain, this would be impossible for human, even with todays technology.
The only reason people feel like dolphins are like humans, is because of their communication and signals, I mean, if a dolphin didnt have a face, and didnt make sound and couldnt do neat tricks, nobody would have cared anyway

[Left Now]

Hehe it would be really funny if a dolphin could be a nuclear scientist!

[CyrustheGreat]

Hehe it would be really funny if a dolphin could be a nuclear scientist!

haha, ya it would be. but i think what puts humans away from other animals is our ability to think of extraordinary things, like gods and demons. then when we started to look to the heavens, we found astrology, astronomy, and just think; do dolphins have shrines to otherworldly beings?

[Left Now]

haha, ya it would be. but i think what puts humans away from other animals is our ability to think of extraordinary things, like gods and demons. then when we started to look to the heavens, we found astrology, astronomy, and just think; do dolphins have shrines to otherworldly beings?

No for sure.But the thing which has made us different,as many of people in this thread said,is our ability of thinking.What has the evolution done for us?We are now thinker animals,and more than trusting our instincts,we more trust our logic.

For example an animal will never ask itself if there is any other world or if there is any god,but humans always thought about things like this.If you see only humans have different religions and beliefs.Not only for religions,different scientists have different ideas about only one subject,because all of them think and their thoughts are different.

[britishboy]

No for sure.But the thing which has made us different,as many of people in this thread said,is our ability of thinking.What has the evolution done for us?We are now thinker animals,and more than trusting our instincts,we more trust our logic.

For example an animal will never ask itself if there is any other world or if there is any god,but humans always thought about things like this.If you see only humans have different religions and beliefs.Not only for religions,different scientists have different ideas about only one subject,because all of them think and their thoughts are different.

I dont think its a bad thing, we live to at least 70 and are not hunted by animals

[Left Now]

I dont think its a bad thing, we live to at least 70 and are not hunted by animals

Right,but instead we will hunt them.Think about that if Lion could hunt humans.Then i think we are forced to have extra-iron doors for our houses.

[britishboy]

Right,but instead we will hunt them.Think about that if Lion could hunt humans.Then i think we are forced to have extra-iron doors for our houses.

thats the beauty of our brain! we can defend ourselves from anything

[Left Now]

thats the beauty of our brain! we can defend ourselves from anything

But can we really do it from ourselves?

[britishboy]

But can we really do it from ourselves?

yep, we built stuff that protect us

[Left Now]

yep, we built stuff that protect us

But wiser bad people will build new stuffs to destroy them.

[britishboy]

But wiser bad people will build new stuffs to destroy them.

I thought you ment humans as a species and yep there is evil people out there

[Left Now]

So the humans surely can hunt each others,like the creators of nuclear bomb and biological weapons.

[peaceloveanarchy]

We are seperated from animals by our higher level of consciousness. Our ability to think critically, and to not just feel, but to understand. Basically the ability to question your humanity makes you human. We got where we are because of evolution. Over millions of years the human form and mind proved to be advantageous, so here we are. Now that we are conscious, however, we are responsible for our own evolution. Nature got us this far, now the way forward is love and unity.

[Miserabilia]

We are seperated from animals by our higher level of consciousness. Our ability to think critically, and to not just feel, but to understand. Basically the ability to question your humanity makes you human. We got where we are because of evolution. Over millions of years the human form and mind proved to be advantageous, so here we are. Now that we are conscious, however, we are responsible for our own evolution. Nature got us this far, now the way forward is love and unity.

this ^

[whatsgoinon53]

-Well we are humans,and as all of us know this,humans are animals or as some philosophers say,they are speaking animals.Well,now i just want to know that, what has made us different from other animals?And why?

Not too many people on this forum appreciate my Christian insight but I'm going to say this anyway. In the bible it says that God placed man above all other living creatures. He gave Adam the job of naming them all after all.

[tovaris]

Sigh I hate it when people bring up dolphins...
yes, dolphins are "smart", yes dolphins are concious, but dolphins onl have an intelligence that seems incredibly small compared to a humans.
Compared to other animals, dolphins are smarter, but not exceptional. Humans are. Humans have an extremely complicated combination of primal urges, free thoughts, concious, unconcious, thousands of possibilities and calculations in just seconds. For where you could make a computer resembling a dolphins brain, this would be impossible for human, even with todays technology.
The only reason people feel like dolphins are like humans, is because of their communication and signals, I mean, if a dolphin didnt have a face, and didnt make sound and couldnt do neat tricks, nobody would have cared anyway

How does one mesure inteligence?
And what is not to say these animals dont have free thaughts, etc. What is not to say they arent smarter than a say two oeged planet destroing monkey?

[Micci]

Like the others said, it was mostly natural selection. The humans who knew to run from predators survived, the ones that didn't died.

Also, there were other life forms (?) who were more intelligent than us, but they were either killed by early humans or died off on their own. The fact that they were intelligent meant that most of them were weaker than the early humans.

One of those life forms seemed to have been so intelligent that it knew that early humans would eventually take over, so it just gave up.

Cowardice at its' finest.

[Miserabilia]

How does one mesure inteligence?
And what is not to say these animals dont have free thaughts, etc. What is not to say they arent smarter than a say two oeged planet destroing monkey?

You can see the brains of an animal through autopsy, and scan the human brain etc... Human brain is far superior and 1000x more complex then any animal. (okay maybe not a thousand but mucccch more)

[Stronk Serb]

Still something is lost here!Why there is not any other wiser animal in the globe?As you know animals are instinctive and their acts are based on their instincts.As animals,we are instinctive too,but our works are not completely based on our instincts,we more think about what we really want to do.

For example,there is thirsty group of people in a desert who have lost their way and do not have any water to drink,there is a little baby in the group too;When this group find drinking water,first they will let the baby drink and then they will,even if the others are not that baby's parents.But now imagine another group like this but full of for example animals;

When they find water,they won't wait to think about the other younger members of the group who need water more than them.They will only drink,maybe just their parents will let them drink first but not the others...

By "different" i mean such things like this.

That made me wonder also. Physically we are very well adapted, what we lack in raw physical power or needed physical traits, we make up for with vast intellect (compared to other animals), like making weapons for easier hunting and clothes for surviving different climate conditions. Maybe other animals haven't evolved enough to support a brain which does not work by instincts. The first civilization was established 4,000-5000 years ago, mankind with it's final physical appearance emerged 250,000 years ago. We are still evolving. Probably not physically, but mentally, although I question myself if that is true, considering the behaviour of the current and younger generations, at least in Serbia.