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I challenge you to name a behavior that most humans do (or did) that no other animals do. There's usually at least one other example in the animal world. Just

by mLuby 5y ago

I challenge you to name a behavior that most humans do (or did) that no other animals do. There's usually at least one other example in the animal world. Just that we may do these things in combination and so much better that the difference becomes qualitative. I'd say the only uniquely human thing is creating fire. https://twitter.com/mluby/status/1256768920343756801 https://twitter.com/mluby/status/1256768920343756801 Yes, there's that Australian bird that moves fire around, so I had to narrow it to creating rather than just using fire. (The article is lame, so focusing just on the title…)

jgoure30 5y ago
Challenge accepted. We have belief systems. We have religions, imaginary system called money, imaginary organizations called companies. These systems are not something nature gives us, but we believe them to be as real as the air we breathe. I can’t think of an animal that has belief systems that they share with each other. I agree with the argument in the book Sapiens, that these belief systems are what allow us to collaborate and trust individuals outside of our tribe.
- mLuby 5y ago
  Good ones. Here's what I'd say: 1. Belief/religion: there's an experiment I heard about where researchers put a banana in a tree but monkeys got shocked if they went for it. So the monkeys stopped trying to get that banana. And then the researchers gradually replaced each monkey with one who'd never been shocked. The new monkeys also never went for the tree banana, having picked up on the superstition from their group. 2. Organizations are just like packs or pods, not all of which are genetically based in nature. 3. Money is an interesting one. I'm not aware of animals even bartering or trading objects with each other, but I also wouldn't be surprised to hear it happens. It sounds like there are cases in the wild of animals trading sex for objects though. The oldest profession just got a lot older.
  - villmann 5y ago
    Don't crows trade shiny objects for food?

by mLuby 5y ago

jgoure30 5y ago

Challenge accepted. We have belief systems. We have religions, imaginary system called money, imaginary organizations called companies. These systems are not something nature gives us, but we believe them to be as real as the air we breathe. I can’t think of an animal that has belief systems that they share with each other. I agree with the argument in the book Sapiens, that these belief systems are what allow us to collaborate and trust individuals outside of our tribe.

mLuby 5y ago
Good ones. Here's what I'd say: 1. Belief/religion: there's an experiment I heard about where researchers put a banana in a tree but monkeys got shocked if they went for it. So the monkeys stopped trying to get that banana. And then the researchers gradually replaced each monkey with one who'd never been shocked. The new monkeys also never went for the tree banana, having picked up on the superstition from their group. 2. Organizations are just like packs or pods, not all of which are genetically based in nature. 3. Money is an interesting one. I'm not aware of animals even bartering or trading objects with each other, but I also wouldn't be surprised to hear it happens. It sounds like there are cases in the wild of animals trading sex for objects though. The oldest profession just got a lot older.
- villmann 5y ago
  Don't crows trade shiny objects for food?