Examining whether humans are unique, how to define humanity, and when humanity evolved.

[RJM Corbet]

The first animal instinct is for self survival. The second is to procreate. And it's almost as strong, imo. When young are born, the instinct for self survival gives way to the instinct to protect the young until they are able to live viably alone. Penguins take huge risks to return food to their young, etc.

An animal may not usually lash out or bite the human whom it perceives as its protector and source of nourishment. There is a balance of values. A dog still follows its pack instinct, and a trained circus lion performs for a mix of reasons.

Is there something different about human beings? Perhaps there is not.

From Tom Wolfe's The Right Stuff when test pilots are laughing about new astronauts saying a monkey could perform the same job, Chuck Yeager observes: "But a monkey doesn't know the rocket can blow up."

So ... not sure where I am trying to go with this ...

 

[Montero]

I was wandering and wondering a bit myself..... I worked towards what I wanted to say in my previous post....

 

[Provincial]

The bit I thought interesting -- more as a germ for a story than as science (to the extent of not bothering too much whether the "evidence" for it is there or not) -- was the suggestion that we were infantilised hominids (in the way that domestic cats and domestic dogs are infantilised versions of their wild forebears).

While we almost certainly have infantilised ourselves, there's the tiniest crack through which a suggestion that, perhaps, we might have been the "pets"** of other hominids might squeeze through and, if so, we eventually decided we didn't like our status and took action to rectify it. (Note that I write as someone who, from early on, has come to think that the hominids in the Culture are -- or very well could be -- the pets of the Minds.)


** - Other, less cosy, owner-owned relationships*** are available for consideration.

*** - I wasn't completely convinced by:

We have (quite recent) examples of the offspring of slaves or concubines becoming the heirs, sometimes the principal heirs, of their mother's owners.

I also found that ‘infantilising’ idea quite interesting from a story point of view, but more from the viewpoint that we are a race which hasn’t grown up yet!

 

[Fiberglass Cyborg]

Whenever I see on the cover of a popular science magazine the words "Special Issue: What it Means to be Human!" I always think I'd be more interested if they did "Special Issue: What it Means to be Hedgehog!" just for a change.

 

[Venusian Broon]

This video I came across yesterday has some bearings on the topics of this thread, I believe, although it it's entertainment....no...edu-tainment, just not rigorous . (I think the bit about the ants made me think about this thread!)

Anyway it's not quite related to the OP, but still deserves a looksy

EDIT: Okay, the media function here doesn't seem to be working....so....the video I am refering to is called 8 million species of Aliens and it is on the exurb1a channel on Youtube

 

[Foxbat]

Animals have an irritating habit of getting in the way when we try to define ourselves. For example, New Caledonian crows have been observed using (and, it’s claimed, making) tools to get to food. When it comes to language or communication, honey bees communicate within the hive by vibrating their wings and moving about in specific sequences (often known as the waggle dance). This is supposed to transmit info on direction and distance to food based on its movements relative to both the hive and the sun.

Humanity would be so much easier to define if there weren’t so many animals about.