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As noted in the article, this thesis isn’t exactly new. Human reasoning is what ultimately makes humans exceptional—they both prod consciousness in themselves a
by nis0s 1y ago
As noted in the article, this thesis isn’t exactly new. Human reasoning is what ultimately makes humans exceptional—they both prod consciousness in themselves and other beings. The point that we’ve underestimated the cognitive complexity of other animals is an important one. No other animal is capable of going beyond the confines of this planet, and the fact that only humans can enable such thing is quite exceptional.
- ljlolel 1y agoWhen we go to space we will absolutely take fruiting plants with us. Are we just the legs and reproductive organs of the plants?
- dvrj101 1y agowe might as well take a cat, are we still serving goddess Bastet ?
- breckenedge 1y agoWe’re just meat tubes for microbe mobility.
- HKH2 1y agoControlled by our RNA overlords.
- nis0s 1y agoWe’re just talking about evolution now, which is to be expected. The molecular bits are more subject to stochastic processes than humans because conscious-level control of themselves and their environment is an important differentiator for beings with some higher level of cognition.
- ghssds 1y agoMaybe someday we'll be the reproductive organs of the biosphere as a whole, giving birth to other biospheres on another planets.
- armchairhacker 1y agohttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Egregore https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Egregore Or we're just the cells of cultures, or religions, or corporations, or governments, or the ecosystem consisting of all biological life, or the universe. Or each of us is the more-structurally-defined society or construction of a group of cells, or DNA, or molecules.
- goatlover 1y agoWhat function does the word "just" serve in these kinds of statements? Humans are "just" collections of atoms. So is all other ordinary matter, but what does that mean? Humans are "just" colony of cells. So is all other multi-cellular life, but what is the significance? Everything is "just" excited fields waving or strings vibrating, but again, what does that tell us above some fundamental level?
- armchairhacker 1y agoUnfortunately "just" is filler, I try to be concise but wasn't there. In fact it's worse, by "or" I really mean "and/or"; in a way, we're simultaneously the cells of cultures and religions and etc. The point is that we typically think of humans as "conscious" and "alive", but consciousness isn't physical; whether a human is conscious or a "ghost in the shell" makes no difference to the universe. In theory, a cell or ecosystem could also be "conscious", "sensing" and "thinking", since it also makes no difference. Furthermore, although its sensations and thoughts would be much different than any human's, they aren't completely unimaginable. For example, an ecosystem reacts to changes, experiments, and adapts via evolution (and cells react to things and display some level of sentience). Thus, evolution can be considered a form of thinking: like how we form and execute ideas to survive and prosper, an ecosystem forms and creates species to increase the coverage of life over the planet.
- card_zero 1y agoEvolution creates knowledge, but it certainly doesn't cogitate, otherwise it would design things rationally and with purpose. Instead we get eyes that filter light through their own nerve circuitry, and lots of side effects and happy accidents, and millions of kinds of beetle, and no wheels.
- nis0s 1y agoSure, and then we’ll change any aspect about that fruit or plant to suit our needs in a new environment. Co-evolution and parasitic evolution is a pretty cool thing itself.
- goatlover 1y agoThe robotic ships we send out aren't. I never understand that need to deny that in certain ways (but not other ways), humans are exceptionally different from all other life on this planet. Which results in sophisticated, world-altering, space-exploring technologies. For better or worse. And it's what we look for most in the stars. To detect not just alien life, but technological civilizations.
- somenameforme 1y agoIt's not reasoning that makes humans exceptional. Reasoning without execution is completely irrelevant. Humans are exceptional because of what we do. For instance we've managed to use our skill sets to do things like put a man on the Moon. And in fact this sort of achievement will be critically necessary for the survival of any species. Earth has had numerous mass extinction events, and we're well overdue for another one. And on a long enough time frame, even the Sun itself will eventually engulf the Earth. The only way to 'win' this game is technology and expansion outward into the cosmos. And it may well be that that elephant beaten into a parlor trick of painting from the article (seriously, don't look up how elephants are 'trained'), is brought along so that its species may too eventually continue to persist into the future, thanks to humanity.
- glial 1y ago> No other animal is capable of going beyond the confines of this planet, and the fact that only humans can enable such thing is quite exceptional. One thing humans seem to be uniquely good at is picking goalposts that separate us from other species.
- Helmut10001 1y agoJust thinking of bacteria who possibly escaped planet earth at sometime. Given this argument, such bacteria would be classified more intelligent than humans.
- nis0s 1y agoBacteria can beat humans anytime in any number of ways. One important difference to me between a bacterium and human is that humans are concerned with more than feed-fuck-fight cycles of life. Look at what you’re doing now, for example, advocating for thoughtfulness towards other animals. What other animal is doing that for you? The point is that no other animals can be stewards, historians, or guardians of this planet. If there is a mass extinction event, no other animal would be capable of escaping it consciously, except by random chance. Humans are better off understanding everything else they inhabit this planet with, it’s better for them and the incidence of life and intelligence, which shouldn’t be taken for granted, IMO.
- Helmut10001 1y agoYou're framing this as a matter of consciousness and stewardship, but I believe that perspective misinterprets the fundamental mechanisms of life and overlooks humanity's actual role on this planet. Firstly, your argument about "consciously" leaving the planet versus bacteria doing so by "random chance" presents a false dichotomy. Evolution, the very process that led to human consciousness, is built on random mutations and environmental pressures. Bacteria's ability to survive in extreme environments, including the vacuum of space, is a testament to their evolutionary success. Studies have shown that bacteria can survive for years in space, suggesting that the "panspermia" hypothesis—life spreading between planets—is plausible. In a very real sense, their evolutionary trajectory has prepared them for interstellar travel in a way ours has not. While we develop technology to escape Earth, they have evolved the biological means. At this moment, their "random" adaptations have made them more successful at leaving Earth's biosphere than our conscious efforts. Secondly, the idea of humans as "stewards, historians, or guardians of this planet" is a noble thought, but it starkly contrasts with our actual impact. To an outside observer, humanity would not appear as a guardian but as a significant threat to the planet's ecosystems. We are currently causing environmental degradation on a massive scale, including mass extinctions, deforestation, and climate change, which threatens not only other species but our own civilization. Attributing a unique "thoughtfulness towards other animals" to humans is an anthropocentric view that ignores the fact that we are the primary drivers of the current biodiversity crisis. The very existence of a mass extinction event, driven by a single species, is unprecedented in Earth's history. To suggest that humans are the planet's only hope for survival is to ignore the fact that we are currently its greatest adversary. It is a form of exceptionalism that prevents us from seeing our place within the ecosystem, not above it.