ANSWERS: 22
  • Self awareness and yes, we are.
  • We have left nature for our own world. We are no longer surviving, but living, albeit, some of us badly.
  • we have a mind more than them, otherwise we're all like them
  • An over inflated sense of self-importantce. We are the strongest, we have the weapons, any creature that stands in our way will be swept aside by our superior violence.
  • Other animals adapt to changing environments over time through evolution. We are the only animal that doesn't wait for evolution. We are the only one with the ability to think about what could be, and then invent a way to get it. We needed to run as fast as a horse, so we domesticated horses and trained them to give us a ride. We wanted to fly like the eagle, so we invented airplanes -- we didn't just sit hoping someday to grow wings. Animals can be amazingly smart. Some are just learning to solve rudimentary problems. Primatologist Heidi Lyn wrote, "If you give a screwdriver to a chimp, it will throw it at someone. If you give a screwdriver to a gorilla, it will scratch itself. But if you give a screwdriver to an orangutan it will let itself out of its cage."
  • Our ability for premeditated destruction
  • Arrogance is one trait that separates people from animals
  • We hate.
  • Intellect, separates us.
  • Our ability to make complicated plans for the future. Our ability to (drastically) change our environment to suit us instead of the other way around - i.e. adapting to the natural environment. Our ability to overcome the "fight or flight" impulse. Our ability to willfully harm ourselves.
  • our consciousness, have a written language, knowing that we will die someday, complex language, our knowledge base continues to grow, our hands so that we can make complex tools and build cities and go to the moon...
  • Humans are another type of animal. We have adapted very well to our environment due to our ability to have detailed communication with one another and ability to record knowledge in order to pass it down the generations. We may well cause our own destruction in the end, but nevertheless it will have been a spectacular history lived.
  • I believe that what makes us human, and allowed us to evolve is first we learn to control our emotions. Consider the first proto-human who purposefully 'made' fire - they had to get over any fear of it (the unknown factor). To evolve into human kind, our ancestors needed to 'reason' to get beyond the animal reactions. The other thing that I think makes us human is our ability to be creative. Mostly I mean that in an artistic way as some animals can be creative and make "tools" to do a task. Humans create things for no reason other than aesthetics. Humans make art. I don't put as much importance on language as a factor in deciding what separates humans from animal kingdom as science is FINALLY figuring out that animal communication is not merely anecdotal, but factual.
  • Some animals recognize themselves in a mirror. Darwin himself observed an orangutan that appeared to recognize itself in a mirror. Since then, the mirror test has been refined and used by other researchers. "There are 9 species that pass the mirror test, including magpies and elephants but mostly primates. Most human babies do not pass the mirror test until several months of age." More here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mirror_test _____________________________ I don't recognize myself in the mirror until after 3 cups of coffee. Even then, I might scream on first sighting. :)
  • No other animal except cats have such big egos as humans.
  • The ability to blush... and the need to.
  • Speciesism is what actually separate us from them. "Speciesism involves assigning different values or rights to beings on the basis of their species membership. The term was coined by British psychologist Richard D. Ryder in 1973 to denote a prejudice based on physical differences. "I use the word 'speciesism'," he explained two years later, "to describe the widespread discrimination that is practised by man against other species [...]. Speciesism and racism both overlook or underestimate the similarities between the discriminator and those discriminated against." The term is used mostly by advocates of animal rights and veganarchism, who believe that it is irrational or morally incorrect to regard animals (which are acknowledged to be sentient beings) as mere objects or property. The view is motivated by an acceptance of Darwinism and the logical upshot which suggests that humans as they are today would be just as speciesist towards their lesser evolved forms. Some philosophers and scientists, however, disagree with the condemnation of speciesism, arguing that it is an acceptable position and behaviour, as a form of human supremacy. Philosophers Tom Regan and Peter Singer have both argued against the human tendency to exhibit speciesism. Regan believes that all animals have inherent rights and that we cannot assign them a lesser value because of a perceived lack of rationality, while assigning a higher value to infants and the mentally impaired solely on the grounds of their being members of the supposedly superior human species. Singer's philosophical arguments against speciesism are based on the principle of equal consideration of interests." Source and further information: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Speciecism
  • We are not different. Some animals have claws, or camouflage. We have large frontal lobes. These large frontal lobes give us self-awareness. We are not alone in this, other animals are self aware, we are just more aware.
  • I do believe we have a soul and spirit and they just have a soul.
  • Gods' ordinance.
  • our ability as humans to accessorize.

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