Great achievements indeed for us animals. But we are still classified as animals. I too have great bias for my own species, its a ego thing. What other animal could do the things that humans do right?
The problem is that not every human can do those things that we hold so high in our bias. The people that can do some of those great things can only do so because of the assistance of machines. No human could go to the moon without first having a machine to take them there. ANd the machine that man used to get to the moon was a flimsy primitive its a wonder it even worked contraption. And we havent been back since. Our machines though go many places. But a machine no matter how complex doesnt make us more special than a bird that uses tools in its daily life. In fact those animals that have learned to use tools do so with much less mental abilities than humans. if we compensate for their mental handicap they become very special animals too.
There is no doubt that humans are the most advanced specials of animals on Earth. The evidence is very compelling that humans have mentally evolved in great leaps and bounds. The things that humans can do are really amazing and some are way out there. But the word special implies that for some reason the animals called humans are what? Thats what I was asking you what makes humans special, not what our species has achieved that is by standards better than other species of animals. Our achievements dont make us special they just put us at the top of list of achievements by animals. Though from a biological viewpoint we are not special at all. Our species is young while other species have been able to survive much longer. Some even have much less problem with disease and their quality of life seems quite high. meanwhile humans have many diseases and some have extremely poor quality of life, and many times it was humans that caused those problems. As if animal instinct has run a muck.
What animal is more special a dog or a cat, a bird or a snake, or a fish? Humans are just animals with much more advanced mental evolution. We are special to us because we are human. here is a thought though, if we removed all fish from the planet the effect would devastate the planet. Remove humans and all of our machines from the planet and the planet would thrive. Yes indeed we are special. My bias though asserts that we would figure out a way to deal with no fish. But the fact that the planet would thrive in our absence is humbling and doesnt make me feel too special as a species.
