Compare animals to humans, what make humans better to dominate the animal kingdom and the world. We humans rule over the animals because of the human
differences. For one, I see humans have a larger, smarter brains so we can dominate the animals - we have much better analytical skill. What are other human
differences?
* Human Differences
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 Republic15 |
* Human Differences |
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Full-Fledged Member
Posts: 495 07/01/09 08:25 AM |
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Posts: 58520 07/01/09 09:06 AM Co-Admin. w/ Grace06 |
I'm not sure we're smarter than cetaceans.
Perhaps the biggest difference is our use of tools. Lock a naked human in a room with a hungry tiger, or wolf, or bear, and that human's probably a goner. But give the perky little blonde a nice big noisy .44 Magnum, and suddenly things don't look so good for the bear (etc.). |
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 Tronport |
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Posts: 3061 07/01/09 09:14 AM Bildung Pusher |
Has there ever been any other species as dangerous to itself and other species as are humans? We might be just a bit too smart for our own good...
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Posts: 58525 07/01/09 09:31 AM Co-Admin. w/ Grace06 |
We've been warned Tron.
The serpent warned about the peril of eating of the fruit of knowledge ... . But we ate it. And now there are over 6,000,000,000 of us. We don't have as many plagues as we used to. Because of building codes, we don't lose as many in Earthquakes as we used to. Because of technology we have seemingly fresh produce year around. We're overdue for a catastrophe that will drop Earth's human population by a few billion. It doesn't seem imminent. |
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Arkanrium |
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Posts: 50 07/02/09 02:17 AM The voice of reason.
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It depends on hat your definition of "smart" is.
The only capacity that separates us from animals it seems is "Conceptualization," a monkey is able to see the use of a stick as a direct tool, but not that the tool could be improved upon or kept for further use. Some say that animals are more aware than humans, and as far as their five sense can take them this is mostly true, but their capacity to extract information from what they experience seems to be the major difference.
"An open mind is like a fortress with its gate unbarred and unguarded."
"Blessed is the mind to narrow to doubt!" "Logic is the mask of traitors, reason the cloak of heretics!" "Compromise is the first step on the road to treachery!" -Imperial librarian |
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Posts: 58543 07/02/09 03:01 PM Co-Admin. w/ Grace06 |
Ark,
I'm curious how evolution has made us capable of "if / then" reasoning. Even persons with average IQ (however reasonably defined) seem capable of fairly sophisticated adaptation to unanticipated change. The way evolutionary theory was taught to me, the non-adaptable people died off. Could be, I suppose. One comment about the stick. I believe primates have been seen in the wild stripping a stick or stalk of extraneous branches and leaves. So they're not merely tool users, they're also tool makers. But I agree, chimps & gorillas don't seem to be very good at metallurgy, etc. |
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Rambo123UK |
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Posts: 1363 07/03/09 03:19 PM Tooth fairy agnostic
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Chimps choose and store the best sticks and rocks for future use, and so can certainly plan ahead, but the difference between stripping and snapping a branch
to make a crude spear, or fraying a twig to pick up ants, or using crushed-up bark to soak up rainwater like a sponge, or using a rock or log as a hammer to
crack nuts and actually setting out to turn a stone into a tool is a different thing. Chimps though have been shown how to make stone tools, in fact, but they
appear only able to copy from being shown it.
It's not just our brains, but the fact that they allow us to adapt to so many different things. Improving body plans and parts takes a long time in evolution, but a brain that lets you create things for many situations is just so much easier and better, and unlike a long neck, big teeth, tusks or whatever, there is no such thing as over specialisation. Many species died out because they were TOO well adapted to just ONE evolutionary niche and when the environment changed, their bodyplan could not change with it. Brains allow us to change our tools, not our body. "I tend to think that cricket is the greatest thing that God ever created on earth - certainly greater than sex, although sex isn`t too bad either" Harold Pinter Bible Babble 
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Posts: 58565 07/03/09 09:22 PM Co-Admin. w/ Grace06 |
"but they appear only able to copy from being shown it." Rambo Ahh. So they're a lot like humans then. "Brains allow us to change our tools, not our body." Rambo Bear's eye sight seems pretty poor. It seems they just don't need it. Eagles have spectacular eye-sight. They may be able to see better with their unaided eye than we can with binoculars. Could you see a mouse on the forest floor from 800' overhead, with binoculars? One of the tools we make is prosthetics. And one of the most common prosthetics I know are eye glasses. I don't have information on it. But I suspect the human population's median eye sight is degrading. But maybe it's more complicated. Perhaps improved nutrition has given a temporary boost to the median human visual acuity, but that it'll degrade in the long run, because poor eyesight may not necessarily weed the individual from the gene pool as it would among aboriginal hunter / gatherers. |
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Rambo123UK |
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Posts: 1366 07/04/09 05:55 AM Tooth fairy agnostic
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That's true for a great number of diseases and maladies that seem to be increasing in the population, I think. A worldwide disaster that wipes out most of
the population would soon thin the herd and cull the weak of poor breeding stock.
"I tend to think that cricket is the greatest thing that God ever created on earth - certainly greater than sex, although sex isn`t too bad either" Harold Pinter Bible Babble
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Republic15 |
Give me the thumb. | #9 | ||
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Posts: 502 07/04/09 06:19 AM |
Also, humans are different from the animals because we have a useful thumb on each hand. Just imagine, without our useful thumbs, humans can't write, make
tools, grab objects, build houses, etc...
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Posts: 58574 07/04/09 09:26 AM Co-Admin. w/ Grace06 |
Rambo,
The part that I find so alarming is not that it someday might; but that it's already well underway. People that would not have survived to breeding age, now breed without statutory limit. It's easy to snipe at (criticize) the Chinese. But their leaders (central planners) were right. If not put in check, China's population would have exploded. "One Child" might seem heartless, & bureaucratic. But it's probably better than the alternative. Yup, you're right R15. Life without thumbs would suck. Oh. |
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Arkanrium |
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Posts: 55 07/05/09 04:06 PM The voice of reason.
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"That's true for a great number of diseases and maladies that seem to be increasing in the population, I think."
and apart from our non limited breeding style we aren't helping any with our life styles either, cleansed food stuff, decontaminated living space, destroying even minor sickness because we simply don't have time to let them run their course. All these things don't weaken the racial gene pool but they mean that we are weakened as a group, we are destroying our ability to endure anything at all. Endure, in enduring grow strong.
"An open mind is like a fortress with its gate unbarred and unguarded."
"Blessed is the mind to narrow to doubt!" "Logic is the mask of traitors, reason the cloak of heretics!" "Compromise is the first step on the road to treachery!" -Imperial librarian |
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Posts: 58584 07/06/09 07:59 AM Co-Admin. w/ Grace06 |
Ark,
In his intro. to his book Beyond Freedom & Dignity BF Skinner explained that so often we rejoice at every new invention. But Skinner observes that each new "solution" creates more problems. And you've cited perhaps one of the most ominous. What the individual might deem as beneficial turns out to seriously threaten the species. Nature's pace for humanity included an attrition rate. By tinkering with that, we've upset the entire balance. |
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