What makes us humans so special?

For those who are Hindu (or some elements of Buddhist that believe in reincarnation), what is it about being born again as human that's a priority?

Personally, I believe once any entity reaches a certain plane of existence, it does not go lower but stays the same or higher. For instance, if you're a human, I can't see why you have to be reborned back as a rabbit next to learn your lesson. You're human and will move higher(at least that's my theory). It makes no sense to go lower as much as a sending a university student back to kindergarten if he/she doesn't understand something properly, where he/she have to learn the basics all over again from scratch, and not continuing where he/she has left off.

What makes being human the highest in the realm of this world? Aren't we biased in thinking we should be reborn in the species we are now? Like if you're a bird flying around and doing whatever, you're just a bird. That's all you know and you don't care about being born again nor thinking about the after-life. So, you are what you are if you're an animal. Animals do not seemingly dwell in spiritual affair based on human observations but yet some possess traits greater than humans. Animals do not create wars. Dogs are not racist and not picky of the color of other breeds to hang around. Dogs have a longer patient or can concentrate longer compared to some humans who try to meditate/relax. Chickens have complex social structure like humans but are not materialistic. Group of different monkeys have culture of their own just like us humans. Animals may be of the lower plane of existence compared to humans but are just like us in every way except they say we humans are more intelligent.

Yet, is having higher intelligence than animals or other creatures that makes us better? What if you lose hope in humanity? Human intelligence have the power to built so-called advanced civilizations and sophisticated technologies, yet the result is just of an advanced chimpanzee in terms of way of living. We still eat, sleep, and play just like animals but just in a more complicated way. Humans, at the same time, have the power to devise violent wars, global destruction, and the industrial revolution have led to a complex inherent instability for humanity that's bound to collapse on a global scale soon. Humans are the only creature that have the power to destroy the planet. Now, think about animals. They live in hunter-gathering society, not forming advanced civilization, yet are comfortable with what they are, without regards to become more advanced or progessive socially. Cockraoches, which humans have tried to destroy, have inhabited the earth for millions of years and still live on. In fact, cockroaches may as well outlived human beings in the far future. Humans for thousands of years may contemplate on philosophy and nature of the world (thinking that's what set them apart from animals) yet how do we know if animals possesse true love and divinity beyond humans already? They may already be enlighten.

What is it about humanity that you have hope for?

(Btw, I'm for a greater humanity, but just wondering what you think).

 

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Our egoism.

 

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I am not Hindu, but may I ask a question in turn? What makes you think humans are the highest life form on the planet? What criteria are you using? From a human point of view we may seem to be the highest, but that might turn out to be a short lived glory, even if it is glory.

 

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I like both replies. Humans aren’t special at all. No more than anything else, at least.

Always remember you are unique, just like everything else.

I seam to have the greatest ego of all, and yet am bothered when anyone else thinks him self important

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I disagree. In pretty much any measurable quantity we are special. We are the smartest, strongest, fastest, most deadly species on earth. (The only two measurable quantities that I can think of where we aren't special are longevity and size). In order to claim that we are not special you have to invent some unmeasurable factor that is more important than anything else. That is certainly your prerogative, but don't be surprised at the rest of us that simply look at the evidence.

As you mention, "Humans are the only creature that have the power to destroy the planet." I would say that alone definitely makes us special.

-Dale

 

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Try wrestling a banana away from a chimp...

Try out-running a dog...

Try swimming with the sharks at feeding time...

Debatable, but the gadgets we specialize in have allowed us to overcome our deficienceis in the aforementioned areas.

Concerning a "geater humanity", and/or my "hope" for it -
I hope the race snuffs itself before it wrecks the world for the non-lunatic inhabitants...

Moreover, if there were such a thing as reincarnation, another human is the last thing I want to return as.
I'm torn at the moment between orca or mountain goat as that which I practice attonement and divestiture of karma toward achieveing...

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Wrestling a banana away from a chimp is nothing, we can wrestle a mountain from the earth.

Forget out running a dog, we out run sound.

We wipe out entire species, not just a few dozen seals.

The only way it is debatable is, as I mentioned before, if you want to invent some unmeasurable factor to determine it. By any measurable factor we are exceptional in pretty-much every way.

I don't understand your distaste for yourself and your species. Personally I love being me and being human.

I sincerely wish you joy and happiness.

-Dale

 

Much as DaleSpam said, we're special because we're on top. Top of the food chain, the intelligence level and in power. We can and have exerted control over every other living species on the entire planet.

Certainly there are things like deadly microbes that can topple up by the thousands but we've always found a way to overcome them.

I think that most of us would agree that we've not done a good job being in charge of this planet but that doesn't change the fact that we ARE in charge of it.

 

It's not an "unmeasurable" factor, but the simple fact that "we" can only do the things you mention via the proxies of our machines. You or I as individuals could do neither what you mentioned, nor what I did.

This is also why I consider even the claim to our being the smartest as debatable. By the invention of such mechanical means of achieveing our ends, we have done as much to debilitate our planet's capacity to support us as to advance our ability to overcome obstacles which lay in the path to dominance of the planet.
(A tentative claim at best, as natural phemnomena such as the recent tsunami, and hurricane Katrina illustrate... we may move mountains, but when the Earth "burps", we die by the thousands )

"Most inventive" might describe us better. But other creatures survive and thrive sans such contrivances - so which is the "smarter" ?


I've enjoyed my humanity...

I'd just rather not do it again.

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What makes humans special is there ability to plan; to place the world in there mind and manipulate it before it events happens. Humans have the ability to predict. That is what makes us special. I also think humans have a creativity that is unique. Still, other creatures are also creative. They don't have the planning ability. No other creature does.

People keep saying one thing is better than another. Blacks are better than whites because they scored higher on IQ tests, men are better than women, bla bla bla. This might just be the way people think. Humans are not better than other animals. We're different. Comprendo.

 

This planet is not human’s. It is only been loaned to them, and for the time, it is their playground. This doesn’t make it theirs, and they certainly would never be able to destroy it. Not by means you are suggesting, anyway.

 

We are special because we think it so.

It's the only way it could be.

 

Or rather, we think we are special because we think, period.

 

That depends entirely on how one defines "destroy." Certainly we cannot vaporize it or even alter it's mass enough to matter. However, we have the capability to render it unsuitable for life to survive on it. And I don't mean just by nuclear explosions. I'm FAR from being one of those eco-freaks but anyone with half a brain can easily see the results of pollution (which is still increasing). And consider the number of species that we've already driven to total extinction. Doesn't that alone tell you something?

 

You speak though the machines are not part of us, as though they exist independently of us instead of being a physical manifestation of human will. The use of our tools to exert our will on the environment is an essential part of humanity, that is what our brain is for and why it is so important that it consumes such a large share of our body's resources. Why should we propose any human-animal competition where we disallow the human the use of his mind to exert his will but not the animal the use of his muscles to exert his will? How is that then a true comparison between the species?

So begin the debate already. Which specific species do you think is smarter and what measurable evidence do you have to support that assertion? What animal solves which problem better than humans do?

Us obviously. How can someone be more inventive without being smarter? In order to be more inventive you must be both smarter and more creative.

Frankly, your position is completely untenable. On the one hand you bemoan our ability to damage the environment and on the other hand you try to make the laughable assertion that we are not special. If we are not special then we have no special responsibility to protect the environment. You cannot logically have it both ways, either we are in fact special and therefore have special obligations or we are not in fact special and therefore cannot have any special obligations. I personally revel in our uniqueness, our ability for good and ill, our humanity, and I gladly accept the corresponding responsibility.

-Dale

 

What animal causes more problems requiring solutions than humans? The intellect, which you are apparently very proud of, is a very sharp sword, with almost no hilt. Our ability to solve problems is currently being outpaced by our ability to create them. Maybe that will change, but if it doesn't then that is the end of intellect.

 

Surely one could think without ever thinking 'we are special'.

 

And that is yet another indication of our uniqueness.

I like the sharp sword with no hilt analogy. We are good at doing what we want including when what we want is not good. I haven't claimed perfection nor infallibility, only uniqueness. And yes, I am immensly proud of our intellect. Why shouldn't I be? Does something have to be absolutely perfect to be admired and respected or celebrated?

What evidence do you have to support this assertion? There is less starvation, disease, war, pollution, etc. today than there was at the beginning of the 20th century.

-Dale

 

I call them proxies because their existence is no more a manifestation of the will of 99% of the users than the will of God.
Nifty compensation for the inherent physical inferiority of the individual human (proto-human...? I forget at the moment what the prevailing theory concerning when/why we we began making gizmos is ) specimin in comparison with the creatures around them, but ultimately just a chimp digging ants out of a log with a stick taken to the nth degree.
But the chimp is still smarter, because he can find something else to eat if his stick breaks...
LoL

hmmm...
Well - there's "Bonzo" and his stick... sticks are plentiful, and they don't produce greenhouse gasses.
Heck - just about anything that eats seems to have the problem licked better then we do... from Blue Whales that "gather" krill by rising to the surface in a circular pattern while burping out bubble-bursts to concentrate 'em in one big gulp, to wolves' huniting teams, to herbivores of any kind just chowing down on the local "salad bar".
I mean... it's all self-renewing and free !
We "Rebel Apes" have to plow and sew and fertilize and whatnot...
Sure, we're good at it - as well as maintaining our food animal species, but with every increase in proficiency comes the price - that it costs more in some way to continue the process:
The land we cultivate repeatedly loses it's ability to nourish the species of plants we consume, and so we must fertilize... but the fertilizer begins to poison the drinking water...
Our herds of meat-beasties flourish in their multitudes... but because their existence is so thoroughly artificial, they are rife with diseases which we must combat to insure their survival. Our means of doing so have had the peculiar result that our very sustenance is increasingly toxic to us.

I think my use of particular words is tripping me up...
I'm working this out in my head on the fly.
I think we could be more inventive as a result of being imaginative - and this certainly implies a uniqueness, though we cannot really know if any other creatures imagine anything, because if they do they haven't communicated it to us. ( 'cept maybe that gorilla they taught sign langage)

It sure does seem like a manner of "doublethink"...
Wouldn't be the first time I'd made a fool of myself just to be contrary, though, and somebody's gotta champion the cause of human mundane-ness in this stinkin' thread !

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have not read any of thread, but can not resist answering thread's question:

HUMAN OPINION.