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I may have stumbled onto something profound.
9 years ago
General
I was doing a simple forum assignment for my evolution class regarding what sets humans apart from other animals. What makes us uniquely capable of doing what we do? What, to put it simply, makes us sentient. It's something I've thought about before, but not in any great detail. In the process of doing this assignment, I think I may have stumbled across the answer. It's a bit wordy, but if you can stand to read through it, I think you'll find it worthwhile.
Is it language that sets us apart? We're in no way the only animals that can communicate to other members of their own species. Many use vocal communication like we do. Some use scent, or touch, or body language. Some even use all of the above. Gorillas can be taught sign language. Certain birds can be taught not only to repeat our own words, but can come to learn the meaning of some words and use them in the correct context, albeit in a disjointed way. Can it be said, then, that our language gives us our sentience? The answer is only a partial yes. Other animals can communicate rough concepts like "food" or "danger," but we've yet to see evidence that any other species can communicate ideas as complex and detailed as what we're capable of. A parrot that found food somewhere might go back to its flock and indicate that it found food and entice the others to follow it. A human, on the other hand, can go to a group of humans and say: "There's food a few blocks over. Go down the street, take the second right, then the first left, and go to the red house and knock twice on the door." and other humans will be able to comprehend and follow the instructions. This is not enough on its own, however, to explain sentience. If it was that simple, why wouldn't some other animal capable of relatively complex communication have evolved sentience as well?
Is it our ability to use tools? Again, we're nowhere near the only animals to do so, and again, the answer is only a partial yes. Our ability to use tools far outstrips any other animal on the planet. Most other animals that use tools are only capable of going so far as simplistic uses. A rock to smash open a nut, a stick to dip into a termite nest for termites, a wedge to pry something open. Humans, on the other hand, have given themselves the ability to fly, even so far as space, to communicate around the world at nearly light-speed, and to record all of our thoughts and ideas. However, if this was the source of our sentience, why wouldn't some other tool-using creature have evolved their ability further to gain sentience themselves?
The answer is that it is a combination of the two things. Almost all animals are forced to start from scratch at birth. Memories are not genetic. You can come from a long line of mathematicians and physicists and you wouldn't be able to do long division without being taught first. What humans have that all other species lack is a language that is capable of communicating highly detailed and complex information AS WELL AS the ability to record that language. Everything that humans learn can be recorded and saved for future generations, allowing us to build a body of knowledge far above and beyond what can be learned in one lifetime, even if the entire species was focused on nothing but learning. This has, in turn, allowed humans to become a sort of super-organism with individuals carrying out highly specific roles that would otherwise be impossible. With other animals (excluding colonial insects), every individual needs to be able to get its own food, look after its own safety, heal its own wounds, etc. Humans have farmers to provide the food, police to keep them (relatively) safe, and doctors to heal their wounds only because the specific knowledge necessary to perform each of these roles is already available. Thus far, we're the only animals in the world where complex language evolved concurrently with the ability to use tools, thus giving us a means to record and store our knowledge. While these things are not necessary for sentience at its most basic form, which is just self-awareness, they were necessary for humans to bring our sentience as far as we have today. Our ability to communicate evolved along with us, but we didn't evolve past the lifestyle of a simple family group with rudimentary clothing and shelter, until our ability to record and save our knowledge came about.
I hope everybody found this interesting. I'm not sure if anyone else has ever put it down quite like I have, but I came up with this idea independently either way. This shows just how dangerous the current climate of anti-fact, anti-intellectual thought is. We owe who and what we are as a species to our ability to learn new things and record them for posterity. That is science in a nutshell. I will be joining the March for Science on April 22nd. I hope others will too.
Is it language that sets us apart? We're in no way the only animals that can communicate to other members of their own species. Many use vocal communication like we do. Some use scent, or touch, or body language. Some even use all of the above. Gorillas can be taught sign language. Certain birds can be taught not only to repeat our own words, but can come to learn the meaning of some words and use them in the correct context, albeit in a disjointed way. Can it be said, then, that our language gives us our sentience? The answer is only a partial yes. Other animals can communicate rough concepts like "food" or "danger," but we've yet to see evidence that any other species can communicate ideas as complex and detailed as what we're capable of. A parrot that found food somewhere might go back to its flock and indicate that it found food and entice the others to follow it. A human, on the other hand, can go to a group of humans and say: "There's food a few blocks over. Go down the street, take the second right, then the first left, and go to the red house and knock twice on the door." and other humans will be able to comprehend and follow the instructions. This is not enough on its own, however, to explain sentience. If it was that simple, why wouldn't some other animal capable of relatively complex communication have evolved sentience as well?
Is it our ability to use tools? Again, we're nowhere near the only animals to do so, and again, the answer is only a partial yes. Our ability to use tools far outstrips any other animal on the planet. Most other animals that use tools are only capable of going so far as simplistic uses. A rock to smash open a nut, a stick to dip into a termite nest for termites, a wedge to pry something open. Humans, on the other hand, have given themselves the ability to fly, even so far as space, to communicate around the world at nearly light-speed, and to record all of our thoughts and ideas. However, if this was the source of our sentience, why wouldn't some other tool-using creature have evolved their ability further to gain sentience themselves?
The answer is that it is a combination of the two things. Almost all animals are forced to start from scratch at birth. Memories are not genetic. You can come from a long line of mathematicians and physicists and you wouldn't be able to do long division without being taught first. What humans have that all other species lack is a language that is capable of communicating highly detailed and complex information AS WELL AS the ability to record that language. Everything that humans learn can be recorded and saved for future generations, allowing us to build a body of knowledge far above and beyond what can be learned in one lifetime, even if the entire species was focused on nothing but learning. This has, in turn, allowed humans to become a sort of super-organism with individuals carrying out highly specific roles that would otherwise be impossible. With other animals (excluding colonial insects), every individual needs to be able to get its own food, look after its own safety, heal its own wounds, etc. Humans have farmers to provide the food, police to keep them (relatively) safe, and doctors to heal their wounds only because the specific knowledge necessary to perform each of these roles is already available. Thus far, we're the only animals in the world where complex language evolved concurrently with the ability to use tools, thus giving us a means to record and store our knowledge. While these things are not necessary for sentience at its most basic form, which is just self-awareness, they were necessary for humans to bring our sentience as far as we have today. Our ability to communicate evolved along with us, but we didn't evolve past the lifestyle of a simple family group with rudimentary clothing and shelter, until our ability to record and save our knowledge came about.
I hope everybody found this interesting. I'm not sure if anyone else has ever put it down quite like I have, but I came up with this idea independently either way. This shows just how dangerous the current climate of anti-fact, anti-intellectual thought is. We owe who and what we are as a species to our ability to learn new things and record them for posterity. That is science in a nutshell. I will be joining the March for Science on April 22nd. I hope others will too.
I think it is more with the fact we have hands that are more dexterous than other primates which gave us the ability to master things like fire and cook our food, and by cooking it, we made it possible to use more of the stored energy making our brains larger and more complex which then allowed us to start using agriculture, and from my understanding it is the advent of agriculture that gave us what we have today, because then not everyone had to work and forage, you could have educators and historians, if we would have never stumbled upon and learned agriculture I don't think we would be where we are today, or would we?
Also, you should try printing this out for the march: https://xkcd.com/1732/
My hypothesis is that intelligence evolves concurrently with either usage of tools OR complex communication up to a certain point. Once a certain threshold is reached, the three things have to continue evolving together. That's why apes are just one mutation, the one that would allow their braincase to expand, from being able to progress to our level. Dolphins and birds lack the manual dexterity to use tools to the necessary degree to continue up the ladder. Animals like raccoons have the requisite dexterity, but lack the communication skills.
Here's the kicker though: how do we test this? Theoretically, one could create a similar mutation in chimps that occured in humans to allow brain growth, but I already said that I have moral objections to experimenting on apes. Even if one could work past that though, how would you justify continuing the experiment if the chimps began developing higher-level thinking skills?
Also evolution is not a ladder, every species that exists today is equally evolved, just more or less complex.
See Planet of the Apes for that thought experiment, but as a hypothesis, we could do a lot of things that might make animals more aware, birds, have the ability to be dexterous, just not the entire brain capacity, because short life span plus the need to survive. Again, this comes back to agriculture and specialization.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x6txSV5J6xQ