Humans above animals

[Marcus Wolfe]

Humanity has always thought it self greater than all animals.

WHY?

DISCUSS!

[KzinistZerg]

That's a REALLY BAD WAY TO START A DEBATE.

 

Now, with that out of the way...

 

Because Humans are sentient. That's makers us FAR above any other animal, even the Grey Parrot, Gorilla, Bonobo, Chimpanzee, Cetaceans, and Crows. Yes, they are in the bottom fuzzy region of sentience. But none of them have come to our heights.

 

Why are we so much better?

 

Because we have space travel.

 

That is, we've gotten to the moon. But we WILL go further.

[ninja_lord666]

This is a stupid debate...

The reason we, humans, think we are better is for just that reason. We have waaaay more mental capacity than any other animal. Sure you can teach a parrot to speak, but do those words mean anything to it? no. You can also teach many animals dozens of tricks, but again, they don't mean anything. Also, those words and tricks can only be learned by those animals with our help. Look around the world. We have buildings; we can transmute energy; we created the internet; we've traveled into space. Most importantly, however, we can create life: robots and test tube babies. Also, we can clone animals. There's that famous sheep Dolly who was the first cloned animal.

Face it, we're better. When scientists first found chimps using sticks and rocks as mundane tools, they were amazed. That's the most intelligible thing animals have done. We mastered that art close to 9 million years ago, and now look where we are.

There is no possible way anyone can prove that there is another life form on this planet more advanced that us.

[Jonlissla]

There is no possible way anyone can prove that there is another life form on this planet more advanced that us.

 

Tsk tsk tsk, you forgot about Mudcrabs, didn't you? Better not insult them, or maybe they will pay a little visit... :ph34r:

 

Wait... sorry, wrong universe! ;D

 

But honestly, he's right. The reason we think greater of ourselves is because we CAN. We have evolved incredibly fast during these last hundred years. That's because we want to IMPROVE, and that make us a little unique, as no other animal try to improve their everyday life (except Mudcrabs, fear them! :ph34r: ).

[thejake1453]

There is no possible way anyone can prove that there is another life form on this planet more advanced that us.

 

well you never know, scientists might find there is a super inteligent race of creatures living under the earth whic a much smarter then us, oh and there is a parrot that can be tought to speak, and can understand what most words mean, its some african one.

[Vagrant0]

While that is true, you forgot to mention that if we didn't distance ourselves from our food with that whole silly notion of a soul, we would have to deal with some very hard questions about the value of human life, and life in general. While yes, being able to kill more of them than they us has given us the ability to thrive, it is really the theological debate which would keep even another sentient non-human being from being seen as anything more than an animal. It is also what keeps evolution down, if we're related to apes, then there was some ancestor who was more animal than human, and one that was slightly more human than animal. A concept that doesn't sit too well with most religious types. On the otherhand, if you dismiss the notion of the soul, one is essentially no better than the other, and it is only because one has had the chance to develop and maintain their position at the top of the food chain that any difference can be seen. Feral children, while human by biology, lack some of that humanity due to isolation and abuse, where would they fit?

[Marcus Wolfe]

AI!!!!

when did we start being superior though?

Not when we used tools, but when we became capable of killing whatever we damn well please.

 

Is there anything a human cannot kill?

[Dark0ne]

I think it is important to distinguish between greater and more important. The two are not the same. You only need to watch the Discovery channel enough to notice that some animals are actually way better built for their environment than humans. Ergo we class ourselves more important perhaps rather than "better".

 

Generally it's common sense to look after one's self, and then one's own kind first, rather than others. I think this goes both ways too. Imagine we made contact with an alien species far superior to our own; we'd still place ourselves first and them second in rank of importance -- common sense.

[Vagrant0]

we'd still place ourselves first and them second in rank of importance -- common sense.

Yeah, if we don't start proclaiming them as Gods or angels first... Afterall, nothing can be above humanity other than divne beings. Personally if I was an Alien, I'd be trying to play off their human belief system in order to get immediate subordination and promote conflict between people so that I wouldn't have to work so hard. It's far easier to poison a society when they're willingly drinking from the cup.

[Marcus Wolfe]

Woah. Nice. That'll be good for quoting.

 

If Aliens came to earth, well, they wouldn't.

 

Anything smart enough to find a method for interstellar travel is would obviously see that humans are far too war like and should not be tinkered with. They would probably wait until our species was more 'mature'