what separates the animals from you?

[knight_marshall]

some humans believe they have free will, this is insane
some humans don't believe they have free will, and this is also insane.
but a belief, ultimately, is just an opinion.

o·pin·ion
n.

1. A belief or conclusion held with confidence but not substantiated by positive knowledge or proof

humans have opinions, and therefore humans are insane...

you can go look up all the words if you want... belief, opinion, judgement... it's all the same.

edit: hmmm... silly me and my silly way of pasting that source, ah well, dictionary.com should probably be a poster anyway... it'd be helpful.

 

[redeemer]

humans have opinions, and therefore humans are insane...

Umm... whaat? Could you elaborate on this please?

 

[Dyno_oz]

We are self-aware. Also, we are capable of experiencing higher states of consciousness - animals can't.

 

[Manifespo]

We humans
have the benefit
of the Memory
Social Progress of
the Spiritual Material
We work With.

My girlfriend's dog
Verdel sits at my feet
he samples reality
at a higher speed
than me
yet his mind
is linear
and easily
distracted
There is no purpose
except
immediate
purpose.
He has
the ultimate focus
and the
ultimate ADD.
He watches
a fly now an ant
then bites his leach
He is driven by His neurons
but Our neurons
give rise
to the illusion
of stable self,
which we use
to optimize free will
and self control.
Through social
technology and
higher states of
consciousness.
We use our
mindblade for
reason, logic,
and purpose.

 

[shmacky]

If human Earthlings had a purpose, they sure fucked it up.

 

[L2R]

>>Kangaroos are marsupials>>

All marsupials are mammals.

i slouch corrected. (damn this chinese liquor is superfine)

You sure your mind isn't generated by your body?

As sure as anything i can be sure of. Wanna bet? Race you to the afterlife. First one there buys the other a coke.

 

[redeemer]

We are self-aware.

Monkeys could think of themselves as different from other species of animals for this very reason too, neither us nor them are able to confirm it though.

 

[Betaform]

humans can betray thier programming

 

[SardonicNihilist]

 

[doesntmatter]

good example

what seperates turds from you?

 

[randust16]

ive thought about this for many years and today inside the elevator it struck me that animals rarely dance. sure they dance to awake lust in the other sex, but do any animal dance for fun?

also the thing about suicide is kind of rare amongst animals, though ive heard ducks can dive down the bottom of a lake a grab the grass with its teeths and wait till they drown.

can you tell me what separates them from us?

oh, I believe Animals play and dance just like people do.! maybe not in the same style as us, but they definatly do. example: When my dog wants to play, she crouches down with her rump sticking up in the air and her tail wagging furiously. She's deffinatly doing a sort of invitational dance saying "play with me". When my bunny rabbits get hyper and playful, they bolt around from room to room, doing binkies in the air (jumping straght up in the air) and chasing each other. IT's very entertaining and cute. I think they look like they are dancing!

I've heard of animals commiting suicide, though maybe it's not as common as people who kill themselves. Animals experience pain and depression just like us. I saw a documentary on a pack of wolves a while back. When one of their pack members died from a mountain lion attack, the rest of the back was obviously mourning. They did not play for six weeks after the death. Their usual-sounding howls turned intoa sads, mournful, low ,crying.

Animals are like us in many ways, but i believe the main thing which seperates humans from animals is that animals are innocent, natural creatures, where as We are not and are slowly and surely destroying the earth.

 

[elemenohpee]

 

[Adolfo]

Here's a simple one for ya: Fire!

 

[bleedingheartcommie]

opposible thumbs and the most complex vocal chords.... that is all

 

[elemenohpee]

monkeys have habe opposable thumbs AND toes, and sometimes even a tail.

 

[wastedwalrus]

ive thought about this for many years and today inside the elevator it struck me that animals rarely dance. sure they dance to awake lust in the other sex, but do any animal dance for fun?

also the thing about suicide is kind of rare amongst animals, though ive heard ducks can dive down the bottom of a lake a grab the grass with its teeths and wait till they drown.

can you tell me what separates them from us?

Actually, many animals do something like a dance to impress potential mates.

 

[wesmdow]

lemmings run off cliffs and kill themselves.

birds do mating dances, and id swear it looks like they just sing and dance for the hell of it sometimes.

what seperates us from animals... i think it might have somewhat to do with our ability to percieve and measure time.

 

[elemenohpee]

animals do have some sense of time. If you train a rat to push a button at the sound of a tone, and you play that tone every 5 seconds, the rat will know when to expect the tone again. If the 5 seconds goes by and still no tone, it starts to get confused.

 

[redeemer]

lemmings run off cliffs and kill themselves.

Lemmings do not intentionally commit suicide, it's a myth.

 

[jaymie]

Here is an interesting article on the dolphin/human relationship. I found it quite interesting. There is much more to it.

Humans Genes Closer To Dolphins' Than Any Land Animals
by Seema Kumar

Discovery Channel Online News

January 1998

For years, marine biologists have told us that dolphins share many traits with humans, including intelligence and friendliness. Now, a comparison of dolphin and human chromosomes shows that the genetic make-up of dolphins is amazingly similar to humans.

In fact, researchers at Texas A&M University have found that dolphins have more in common with us genetically than cows, horses or pigs.

"The extent of the genetic similarity came as a real surprise to us," says David Busbee of Texas A&M University, who published his results in last week's Cytogenetics and Cell Genetics.

This information will not only help researchers construct the genetic blueprint of dolphins, but also bolster conservation efforts.

Aided by the progress made in mapping the human genome, researchers will continue to identify individual genes on dolphin chromosomes. Busbee estimates it will save them 20 years of work, and the similarities and differences will reveal how long ago humans and dolphins branched off the evolutionary tree.

Researchers at Texas A&M University applied "paints," or fluorescently labeled human chromosomes, to dolphin chromosomes, and found that 13 of 22 dolphin chromosomes were exactly the same as human chromosomes.

Of the remaining nine dolphin chromosomes, many were combinations or rearrangements of their human counterparts. Researchers also identified three dolphin genes that were similar to human genes.

Until now, researchers have never been able to do genetic studies of dolphins because they are a protected species, making it difficult to get tissues from them. However, Busbee was able to grow colonies of cells from fetal tissues when a female dolphin miscarried.

"Dolphins are marine mammals that swim in the ocean and it was astonishing to learn that we had more in common with the dolphin than with land mammals," says Horst Hameister, professor of medical genetics at the University of Ulm in Germany.

In the past 15 years, the world's dolphin populations have declined considerably, exacerbated by high levels of PCBs. Researchers speculate that PCBs impair the immune systems of dolphins, leaving them vulnerable to disease.

"If we can show that humans are similar to dolphins, and anything that endangers dolphins is an equal concern for humans, it may be easier to persuade governments to become serious about combating industrial pollution and keeping oceans clean," says Busbee.

By Seema Kumar, Discovery Channel Online News