The Human Distinction

We, as humans, are unique in our complete domination of our planet, its resources, and its energy. No species on Earth have remotely comparable control of even their own environments, all of which are ultimately in our control. However, the world was not always this way. In the millions of years preceding our recent rise to power, there were no powers with such dominion over the world as us. On our planet we are ubiquitous, nearly every landmass has been mapped and traveled to. We have metalwork, guns, atomic bombs, an abundance of food that we cultivate ourselves, and so much more. All of these developments and control begs an obvious question – what sets us apart?

One answer to this question is our communicative skills. We, better than any other creature on our planet can communicate and share ideas, which can be attributed to our language-learning and creating abilities. For human children, learning the language of the people around them is completely natural. It requires almost no intention to do so, other than that provided subconsciously through our imagination, and the minds of babies are wired to be receptive to language, showing an evolutionary cause. 

This ability for communication means that we can collaborate to turn a group of human efforts into more than the sum of their parts (cheesy but true). However, even more importantly, this allows knowledge to be passed around faster than the pace of evolution. For the other animals who can crudely communicate, they can only convey current information. They could point toward food, or signal danger, but they cannot pass along information about weather cycles, or give advice on the recurring behavior of prey, or tell stories. Every one of these abilities is uniquely human and allows us to accumulate information over generations, rather than almost resetting with each one.

However, for language to be useful, we must know not only how to articulate thoughts, but also how to understand them. To understand a thought is one layer, but to understand why a person has a thought is another. Experiments have been done that show that kids under around 3 cannot understand why a person would make a decision especially when it is wrong. However, above that age, we develop the ability to understand why someone makes a choice and understand what differences in information they have to us. Similar experiments have been done on fully-grown chimpanzees and they still do not have the awareness to understand what knowledge others have, basing their understanding only on what they know.

This method of thinking about thinking, known as metacognition, applies not only to others but also to ourselves. To think about our own thoughts is uniquely human. We are matter, conscious of the fact that we are matter, which we are conscious of! This article itself is proof of the awareness we have of our position in the world, and our awareness of that awareness! The ability to know that we are thinking allows us to better utilize those thoughts to improve ourselves and understand situations and environments with more clarity. Animals can see the information presented to them, but unlike them, we can see how it is being presented. Despite our limited understanding of our brain and its true nature, we are at the very least aware of it. This second level of clarity distinguishes us from the rest of the world and gives reason to our dominion.

Not only are we more social and more effective in our communication than any other species on the planet, allowing us to organize effort, retain knowledge across generations, and bond through art and stories, but we also have the capability to understand the motivations from which that communication arises from, the value of that communication, and derive more information from that. This capability is where we can draw the human distinction.

Works Referenced:

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3385688

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK210023

https://www.morton.k-state.edu/home-family/uploads/Learning%20Language.pdf

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0003347200915185?via%3Dihub

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