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What separates humans from other life forms? Is it one feature, or is it multiple?
Question Date: 2020-12-12
Answer 1:

Hi Wyatt, what an interesting question! I don't think the answer is very clear-cut. Chimpanzees are the closest relatives to humans, but obviously, we and the chimpanzees are very different.

The multiple features seem to be unique to humans and can be broadly separated into 2 groups. The first one is our ability to use complex symbols. The most obvious examples would be languages and mathematics. The fact that you understand what I mean by reading this string of characters or understand what "1+1 = 2" means by themselves is already very fascinating. But we also have different rules and customs in society (like the type of outfits you wear in different situations), which differ by region.

The second is the complex and abstract thoughts that our brains can have. The main one is imagination. So when your parents or teachers ask you what you want to be in the future, you might answer that you want to be an astronaut, a doctor, a singer etc. You are neither of these right now, but you can imagine or see yourself 10+ years in the future doing just that. This is something that seems to be very specific to humans. So to summarize, we humans and animals can do a lot of similar things, but ours tend to be a lot more complicated.



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