3 ms·

I don't see our uniqueness as something different, something not seen in other species. Rather, we are only slightly better, a fraction of a percent better. Th

I don't see our uniqueness as something different, something not seen in other species. Rather, we are only slightly better, a fraction of a percent better. The compounding of that fraction of 1% over 4-7 million years has led to the dramatic differences between us and the rest. That's why the article says it's a mystery. Humans are looking for a thing. Something we have they don't. There isn't anything. We just do those things better, faster, more dramatically and for longer which has widened the gap between what we have and what they have. Same would be true of a human being who compounded their wealth over time. Families who have compounded their wealth for just a few decades now have as much wealth as half a planet of humans. We don't ask for what one thing separates them from us, we know what it is. The power of compounding interest over time.

roenxi 7y ago
And from that perspective, the major difference between humans and animals is that we are just slightly better at organising than they are. Written script, the ability to perfectly capture and preserve commentary, enables intellectual compounding across millennia. That knowledge is probably our biggest advantage as a species and it comes as an offshoot of us using communication to organise ourselves in a flexible way. It isn't that much different from any other pack animal in one sense, the outcomes are just much better. There are animals that are more cooperative, there are animals that are better working independently. Humans seem to have found a real optimum in how we interact with an odd and malleable mix of independence and cooperation. Even different human civilisations show remarkable variance in material results depending on how they choose to organise themselves.
- deleted 7y ago
  [deleted]
- fifnir 7y ago
  >That knowledge is probably our biggest advantage as a species And if you take this knowledge out of a person, they are little more than a wild animal.

roenxi 7y ago

And from that perspective, the major difference between humans and animals is that we are just slightly better at organising than they are. Written script, the ability to perfectly capture and preserve commentary, enables intellectual compounding across millennia. That knowledge is probably our biggest advantage as a species and it comes as an offshoot of us using communication to organise ourselves in a flexible way. It isn't that much different from any other pack animal in one sense, the outcomes are just much better. There are animals that are more cooperative, there are animals that are better working independently. Humans seem to have found a real optimum in how we interact with an odd and malleable mix of independence and cooperation. Even different human civilisations show remarkable variance in material results depending on how they choose to organise themselves.

deleted 7y ago
[deleted]
fifnir 7y ago
>That knowledge is probably our biggest advantage as a species And if you take this knowledge out of a person, they are little more than a wild animal.