Any truly objective observer will say humans are no different from other animals on Earth.
And of course, an elephant will likely say they're special while everything else isn't.
- Humans can easily treat other humans as things as well. Humans being special is to me more or a convenient fiction than something really at the core of our societies.
- For such a long time, we didn't have to care whether humans need to be separated from animals, the value scale was pretty flat in that respect. In many circumstances a horse from a higher up would be more important than a peasant's life.
So far, so good.
> Any truly objective observer will say humans are no different from other animals on Earth
And...we hard exit stage left. It's sad when presumably good intentions, like the ethical treatment of animals and cultivating some well needed humility as a species, leads to such an unfounded point of view.
From a purely biological perspective, I could see that argument. But until animals start hunting, experimenting on, cultivating, and eating humans, en masse, creating symphonies or buildings that will last centuries, and start sending themselves to space, I'll continue to believe the difference between humans and animals is a qualitative and not just a quantitative difference. I don't think a truly objective observe could see it any other way.
Except in all the ways that we are?
What other species have left the planet and came back to tell the tale?
It seems askew to attribute 8 billion+ humans with an attribute marking so few humans .
What is your point that elevates the value of human life above that of other animals?
No, but we have and regularly do move faster than any cheetah and fly higher and further than any eagle.
My point is that, to an objective observer, there are things that humans have done and can do that make us obviously separate, as a species, than any other animal on earth.
The scale of our combined efforts dwarf the efforts of other animals. Especially when considering that, physically, we have very few advantages over other animals.
Arguing against that point is just playing mental gymnastics to say “oh actually humans aren’t really exceptional”
Idk what that might say about the “value” (whatever that means) of human life compared to other life.
A concrete example would be climate change. Humans have been pumping the atmosphere full of shit for a long time and it’s causing global climate changes. No other animal has affected the climate at that scale.
Bad or not, that kind of thing makes us humans exceptional.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Oxidation_Event
The environmental impact humans have had, if any, is astronomically negligible. Even if it wasn't, we certainly aren't the first and certainly won't be the last.
> This began approximately 2.460–2.426 Ga (billion years) ago during the Siderian period and ended approximately 2.060 Ga ago during the Rhyacian
So it took them what, like 400M years?
Our Industrial Revolution was 500ish years ago? Hell, we’ve only been around for 10k years.The scale of that is wildly different.
Also let’s not forget that we can quickly change the atmosphere’s composition, leave the planet and return, move faster than any cheetah, and fly higher and further than any eagle. All of that and more.
The rate of change of our species’ capabilities seem to change much faster than other animals as well
It’s crazy that you’re serious, I’m sorry.
Yeah, and we're talking about maybe we could cause the oceans to rise a few fractions of an inch in that time.
The impact of humanity has been massively overblown by people like you, which only take away from any worthwhile conversation.
My point is that an objective observer looking at the world would absolutely recognize that humanity is an exceptional species (not necessarily in a good or bad way) among all that exist on earth in many ways.
The impact we have on the planet is non-negligible. A few fractions of an inch in 500 years (effectively instant on a geological timescale) is indeed meaningful, but not what I’m trying to argue.
> people like you
You know next to nothing about me. Try not to generalize.
I'm not going to say this is human nature, because I think all species have the same instinctive frame of mind if we could but communicate with them. I have no doubt that elephants look down upon us as crazy apes, but I have no way to prove that since I don't speak elephant.
“Based on this one comment thread, I know enough about you to be able to tell that all of human society is based on humans being special“
Is a crazy statement that has next to nothing to do with the conversation I’ve been having…
This isn't a jab at you, rather you're demonstrating the axiom of human society as a member of it.
We're special to each other because we wouldn't function very well if we didn't find each other special.