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I listened to a podcast today where they guy being interviewed said something to the effect of: "We like to say that humans are the tool-using animal, but we'v
by war1025 7y ago
I listened to a podcast today where they guy being interviewed said something to the effect of:
"We like to say that humans are the tool-using animal, but we've found that lots of animals use tools. What I think is the actual advantage of humans is that we are the mimicking animal. We see what works for other animals and find ways to do the same thing without having to evolve those traits"
I thought that was a really interesting way of thinking about it.
- atdrummond 7y agoSeems to be a summation of Dawkins' hypothesis of memetics.
- chr1 7y agoThere is no single thing having or not having which distinguishes people from other animals, the difference is in the degree at which we can use tools/mimic/create mental models etc.
- Dwolb 7y agoIs your claim there exists no uniquely human trait as compared to other animals? That’s interesting I feel like there is but I’m not so certain. How about the Sapiens take on gossip?
- chr1 7y agoThere are many traits that become available only when some other trait gets to a high enough value. For instance gossip requires speech or some other method of communication so only very few species get a chance to it (maybe dolphins? but not likely). There are traits that are definitely unique, like building rockets, but they are usually complex things.