What seperates humans from the animals? Does anything seperate humans from animals?

Personally, I believe that both humans and animals are products of evolution - nothing more or less. Sure, humans are more intelligent than other animals, but lions have sharper teeth and tortoises have shells. We are no more different from a frog than a swordfish is*.


[SIZE="1"]*not literally in terms of % DNA. I just mean that if you are going to lump any set of organisms into 'animals' then humans should be there too.[/SIZE]

We're animals --->.

Domain: Eukarya
Kingdom: Animalia
Subkingdom: Eumetazoa
Phylum: Chordata
Subphylum: Vertebrata
Infraphylum: Gnathostomata
Superclass: Tetrapoda
Class: Mammalia
Subclass: Theria
Infraclass: Eutheria
Order: Primates
Suborder: Haplorrhini
Infraorder: Simiiformes
Parvorder: Catarrhini
Superfamily: Hominoidea
Family: Hominidae
Subfamily: Homininae
Tribe: Hominini
Subtribe: Hominina
Genus: Homo
Species: H. sapiens
Subspecies: H. s. sapiens

I think the only thing that really seperates us from animals is imagination. Humans are capable of imagining shit and I think (read: I heard it on some documentary on TV years ago) that animals are not. This grants us the ability to think of things we want to have, build, research, etc. and then realize this. Like "How awesome would it be to build something out of these tree things to live in?" "How awesome would it be to get that burning shit under control so we can be warm all the time?" "How awesome would it be to bone our women into their other orifices?", while animals are mostly instinct-driven.

Quote from Zed

What seperates humans from the animals? Does anything seperate humans from animals?

Personally, I believe that both humans and animals are products of evolution - nothing more or less. Sure, humans are more intelligent than other animals, but lions have sharper teeth and tortoises have shells. We are no more different from a frog than a swordfish is*.


[SIZE="1"]*not literally in terms of % DNA. I just mean that if you are going to lump any set of organisms into 'animals' then humans should be there too.[/SIZE]

Physical attributes are not important. Animals adapt to their surroundings whereas humans manipulate their surroundings.

But basically what separates humans from animals is written language, organized society, infinite curiosity and struggle for understanding.

Quote from Überschall

I think the only thing that really seperates us from animals is imagination. Humans are capable of imagining shit and I think (read: I heard it on some documentary on TV years ago) that animals are not. This grants us the ability to think of things we want to have, build, research, etc. and then realize this. Like "How awesome would it be to build something out of these tree things to live in?" "How awesome would it be to get that burning shit under control so we can be warm all the time?" "How awesome would it be to bone our women into their other orifices?", while animals are mostly instinct-driven.

I agree with this argument.

Humans and animals....

In a more positive train of though, you could say that we're just one and the same with animals, we're both alive are we not?

...but that's just the tip of the iceberg.

Quote from shayphis

Humans and animals....

In a more positive train of though, you could say that we're just one and the same with animals, we're both alive are we not?

...but that's just the tip of the iceberg.

So that makes plants animals?

Quote from CGIllusion

Physical attributes are not important. Animals adapt to their surroundings whereas humans manipulate their surroundings.

But basically what separates humans from animals is written language, organized society, infinite curiosity and struggle for understanding.

I lol'd

But seriously, being able to build stuff so well and the need for destruction, even to ourselves, seperates us from animals.

Quote from Gyohdon

I lol'd

But seriously, being able to build stuff so well and the need for destruction, even to ourselves, seperates us from animals.

The drive to destruction is actually common in a lot of other organisms.


On topic:
The only way humans can be called separate from animals is if you define animals as "anything that is not human", but that's an arbitrary, meaningless thing to say. I can just as easily say that anything which is not an antelope is an animal, and it would be equally as valid.


All organisms on this planet are a variation of the same organism.

Animalia, Plantae, Fungi, Chromista, Protozoa

Those are the five kingdoms. Period.

/thread

Some of us are. See: furries

Quote from Dragon⁰⁷⁷

Some of us are. See: Gyohdon

Edited for redundancy.

Quote from Real

Animalia, Plantae, Fungi, Chromista, Protozoa

Those are the five kingdoms. Period.

/thread

Much as I hate to go near religion on this, the argument "souls" has been brought to me again and again. The other one I've heard is sentiency. Proponants of either argument would refuse to accept the classification as evidence against them, so it can't be quite so clear cut. I kinda hope someone will bring them up because otherwise I may have to play devil's advocate for the sake of completeness.

Quote from CGIllusion

Physical attributes are not important. Animals adapt to their surroundings whereas humans manipulate their surroundings.

But basically what separates humans from animals is written language, organized society, infinite curiosity and struggle for understanding.

Humans never used to manipulate our surroundings. Cavemen lived in caves that had been there before they arrived. If anything, that involves less manipulation than, say, a rabbit which digs a hole. We have only started to build the environment around us since we became capable of doing so as a result of our intelligence - any other animal would do the same thing given half a chance.

Also, other animals, such as wolves, have organised societies, and I think curiosity and understanding are by-products of intelligence or a seperate evolutionary advantage.

Quote from Gyohdon

I lol'd

But seriously, being able to build stuff so well and the need for destruction, even to ourselves, seperates us from animals.

Ash mentioned destruction. I'll mention termite mounds.



I'm still working on Schall's point. It's a good one.

zed you speak more sense than anyone has in a long time
we are animals and always will be we are not any better than them either we are savage brutal beasts we just have a way of dressing it up with a pretty little disguise

I'd like to share a revelation that I've had during my time here. It came to me when I tried to classify your species. I realized that you're not actually mammals. Every mammal on this planet instinctively develops a natural equilibrium with the surrounding environment, but you humans do not. You move to an area, and you multiply, and multiply, until every natural resource is consumed. The only way you can survive is to spread to another area. There is another organism on this planet that follows the same pattern. A virus. Human beings are a disease, a cancer of this planet, you are a plague, and we are the cure.