Yes, we are so unique (deny it all you want) that it isn't hard to imagine how life might start and evolve in another galaxy to bring forth something like an elephant or a cockroach, but more difficult to see how an intelligent species like us could come forth without some purposeful direction to evolution. Even if you are an atheist, you have to admit that we are novel indeed.
Here are ten ways we are different:
Plus, we masturbate like there's no tomorrow!:
So why don’t monkeys and apes masturbate even nearly as much as humans? It’s a rarity even among low status male nonhuman primates that frustratingly lack sexual access to females–in fact, the few observed incidents seem to be with dominant males. And why haven’t more researchers noticed such an obvious difference with potentially enormous significance for understanding the evolution of human sexuality? After all, it’s been nearly 60 years since Alfred Kinsey first reported that 92 percent of Americans were involved in masturbation leading to orgasm.
The answer for this cross-species difference, I’m convinced, lies in our uniquely evolved mental representational abilities—we alone have the power to conjure up at will erotic, orgasm-inducing scenes in our theater-like heads … internal, salacious fantasies completely disconnected from our immediate external realities. One early sex researcher, Wilhelm Stekel, described masturbation fantasies as a kind of trance or altered state of consciousness, “a sort of intoxication or ecstasy, during which the current moment disappears and the forbidden fantasy alone reigns supreme.”
Not unique? Then try to masturbate without the human ability to fantasize!
Can any other animal read this and understand the question?
ReplyDelete""It is of interest to note that while some dolphins are reported to have learned English -- up to 50 words used in correct context -- no human being has been reported to have learned dolphinese."
- Carl Sagan
an intelligent species like us
I believe you have low standards, and that the universe can do better. I mean, you yourself pointed out we masturbate an awful lot...
When the dolphins land on the moon in their own craft, I'll believe Carl Sagan had a point worth making.
ReplyDeleteI believe you have low standards, and that the universe can do better.
ReplyDeleteWhether or not the universe can do better is beside the point. The fact remains that there is no other species like us.
When the dolphins land on the moon in their own craft, I'll believe Carl Sagan had a point worth making.
ReplyDeleteSo for thousands of years of our history, we were no better?
The fact remains that there is no other species like us.
Not only is this not able to be verified as true on a universal scale, it's not accurate on Earth. By the logic of your first claim, even bugs and birds were more advanced that humanity for much of our existence, by virtue of their ability to fly.
Then again, I don't consider crude means of measuring superiority like this to be important, and I am left wondering why would would even bother to try desperately to make such a point as, "Humans are special." I imagine it's insecurity, or perhaps ego, or pride, or some other human flaw.
You are being more than a little obtuse, Bret.
ReplyDeleteSo for thousands of years of our history, we were no better?
If you can point to the thousands of years that dolphins had language and syntax, written language, religion, and a written history that could be passed down to the future, then yes, we were "better". But I don't think I ever said better, I said special and unique, which you deny for what can only be reasons of fear in your heart that humanity is different in kind (or so different in degree as to amount to such a clear division that it's the same as a difference in kind) from all other known species.
Again, my position doesn't even need a defense, it's self-evident.
By the logic of your first claim, even bugs and birds were more advanced that humanity for much of our existence, by virtue of their ability to fly.
A straw man. I never argued that humans are "superior" to all other animals in terms of some particular ability, just that humans are different from every other species of animal in a special way, namely intelligence, self-awareness and consciousness.
If you want to talk in simple terms of "success", then we may as well stop at bacteria,
as bacteria are quite successful from an evolutionary view of mere survival and reproduction.
I don't consider crude means of measuring superiority
Since I wasn't using crude means of measuring superiority, you must have meant to leave that comment at another post somewhere, perhaps at the blog of a dolphin...oh wait, dolphins don't have blogs, or computers, or an Internet, or a written language, or technology.
If humans are not special in an important way, please answer why we would be more astonished to discover a species similar to us, with language and technology or at least the same level of intelligence, on say, Mars, than to find a native Martian bacteria or insect? I mean, the whole purpose of SETI is to find another species as special and different from all other life forms as we are, a species capable of achieving what we have achieved.
By the way, if you want, I'll give the dolphins any amount of time you request (in their present state of biological development) to create science and invent the technology to do something on the same scale as going to the moon. How long do you think it will take them, Bret?
Well people! I am a wolf! And lookee here...lol...I am doing pretty wolfishly good with my English given I am in fact the Alpha Female of the Fire Wolf Pack on Io...satellite of Jupiter, one of the Galilean Satellites for the less well educated earthling :) So less of the "special and unique humans" bit please! And let's big up the Canis Lupus extrordinare!!!! :)
ReplyDeleteIf you want to talk in simple terms of "success", then we may as well stop at bacteria, as bacteria are quite successful from an evolutionary view of mere survival and reproduction.
ReplyDeleteIndeed. There's the possibility that some of them have hitched rides on impact debris and travelled farther from Earth than humans, and space conquest is some sort of measure of success. In fact, microbiotic life may be our "God" (in the "creator" sense) should the theory of panspermia be accurate.
oh wait, dolphins don't have blogs, or computers, or an Internet, or a written language, or technology
In some sense, you have hinted at what made humans seem so smart. Our ability to preserve our ideas over thousands of years has resulted in accumulated knowledge that allows for things like computers. However, technology is not exclusive to humans (tool use is a technology).
I said special and unique, which you deny for what can only be reasons of fear in your heart that humanity is different in kind (or so different in degree as to amount to such a clear division that it's the same as a difference in kind) from all other known species.
I know you didn't say better, but all species are unique and special, by the very definition of "species" (species and special are linked linguistically... what's the point in having language if we don't bother understanding it?). I just ignored you meaningless description and pointed out what you seemed to mean: we are just so darned great because we compulsively jerk off.
Furthermore, there's no fear in my heart, just blood and an alarming amount of animal fat. Semantics aside, I am curious how "fear" plays into this particular discussion.
humans are different from every other species of animal in a special way, namely intelligence, self-awareness and consciousness.
This is inaccurate for nearly all mammals, and there is mounting evidence for several other species (for example, cuttlefish) having these attributes. Have you ever taken biology? You might find it fascinating.
If humans are not special in an important way, please answer why we would be more astonished to discover a species similar to us, with language and technology or at least the same level of intelligence, on say, Mars, than to find a native Martian bacteria or insect? I mean, the whole purpose of SETI is to find another species as special and different from all other life forms as we are, a species capable of achieving what we have achieved.
SETI searches for signals that are emitted into space, and we assume these signals might be due to "intellgent life," but in point of fact, there may be organisms that we consider quite primitive that emit signals we can pick up. We are simply using modest means of detection which we possess to search a massive universe.
In reality, it's entirely possible that a species could be too advanced to detect by our primitive means, and there is also the small matter of our own growing silence, as we switch from wasteful transmission methods that send signals off into space in favor of cables or directed signals.It's been theorized that we may one day go silent, by our current standards, at which point we would be undetectable to beings on other planets seeking to find us using identical means.
Also, I just used Sagan’s quote as an example. If I had to choose a successful animal, it would be tortoises, which can live centuries, or even whales, which also live twice as long as we do. Sure, they are lack "an Internet," but as dumb as these animals are, they manage to exist without wrecking the planet. In this respect, humans are just about the dumbest animals on Earth; we are too stupid to even live in balance with our environment.
However, technology is not exclusive to humans (tool use is a technology).
ReplyDeleteBut technological advancement that builds upon previous technology is exclusive to humans, at least in any significant sense of advancement. All the things that you can point to among other species that are similar to human abilities exist only in some very rudimentary form.
but all species are unique and special, by the very definition of "species" (species and special are linked linguistically... what's the point in having language if we don't bother understanding it?).
You're just being a pedant, and I don't need your condescension. You know what I meant by "special" in context, as I already said that there is no other species like us in the level of intelligence and consciousness of the human brain and mind.
This is inaccurate for nearly all mammals, and there is mounting evidence for several other species (for example, cuttlefish) having these attributes. Have you ever taken biology? You might find it fascinating.
If you really think the life a cuttlefish is of equal value on an individual level to that of a human, why don't you join PETA already? And again, you can take your condescending attitude and shove it in a dark, dark hole.
If I had to choose a successful animal, it would be tortoises
And once again, I said it wasn't about "success" in terms of mere survival. You really are dense, aren't you?
I do hope I'm never around you with my loved ones at a lake and you have your dog with you and a situation arises where you have to choose to save my child or your puppy who have both fallen overboard. If there is nothing special about a human versus a dog, than there would be no logical reason for you not to save the puppy over the child. There would be a good reason, though, to thereafter call you a moral monster.
I do hope I'm never around you with my loved ones at a lake and you have your dog with you and a situation arises where you have to choose to save my child or your puppy who have both fallen overboard
ReplyDeleteWell, if it's your child...
Again, I think you didn't even keep in mind the original comments I made in an earlier post. I don't particularly like dolphins, in fact TC can back me up in that I've called them "douchebags."
The fact is, intelligence is not unique to human beings, but unlike PETA, I prefer to help people. In fact, I made the comment that I wouldn't volunteer at an animal shelter when there are people who need help. Just because we are intelligent doesn't mean we are not selfish or exhibit a zealous pride for our species (I imagine you can relate to that).
I'm confused as to why you're so emotionally invested in feeling special... I mean, what kind of insecurity do you have that you have to literally make a post about how swell human beings are? Did a baboon give you the evil eye?
Did a baboon give you the evil eye?
ReplyDeleteYes, as a matter of fact. But I'm not emotionally invested in "feeling special". I'm just pointing out something so obvious that it shouldn't need to be pointed out.
You still haven't presented any rational basis for your preference for helping people, which seems odd coming from someone who accuses others of emotionalism. If you're right, and humans are just another species, than killing a cuttlefish is as much an act of murder (or not) as killing your next door neighbor.
I'm just pointing out something so obvious that it shouldn't need to be pointed out.
ReplyDeleteThen what is your motivation in posting about it and defending it with zeal?
You still haven't presented any rational basis for your preference for helping people
I don't need to be rational, I'm a human being. Our very nature is to be irrational, illogical, and biased.
than killing a cuttlefish is as much an act of murder (or not) as killing your next door neighbor
It is, we just don't prosecute it in our artificial system of justice as such.