>This is to anyone on the reflector --
>a general question.
>
>What distinguishes humanity from all other forms of life?
>
>I mean, 1. Without any controversy -- everyone agrees.
> 2. Absolutely, not just more (or less) of something.
>
>Examples are needed to tell what in the dickens I'm talking about!
>
>Communications/speech does not qualify; many animals (most?) communicate
>with one another quite well.
However, that communication is quite limited. I doubt that one dog can or
would even think of describing to another dog the beauty of a sunset he had
witnessed.
...
>1. Humans enjoy representational art. Paintings that "look like"
> reality. Does any other life form do this?
I think this is a good one. Show any human a statue or painting of a
human, and he/she recognizes it. Show it to a dog and, so far as the dog
is concerned it's just a rock or a colored flat surface.
>
>2. Humans enjoy drama -- plays. Don't know about other life forms.
Would a worker bee's dance to show the hive where honey (or danger. Don't
they do it to alert the hive to threats too?) is qualify?
>
>3. This is the only one I'm reasonably confident about.
> Humans wear clothes. At least enough clothes to
> cover their (adult) genitals. We have some sense of
> modesty (shame?) and so this is worldwide. We have
> "invented" a new concept unknown in the non-human
> world -- that of obscenity, or pornography. (?) I don't
> know of any non-human life form with a similar practice.
This seems like a good candidate.
>
>Nor can I think of any other absolutely-accepted difference.
>Can you?
>
Not yet! Thinking...
Bill Hamilton | Vehicle Systems Research
GM R&D Center | Warren, MI 48090-9055
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