What seperates us from the animals?

Pertinent to the discussion, yesterday on NPR a lady scientist answered the question that's the title to the thread; our capacity for symbolic thought. Also, TIme (August 16) carried a cover story "What Animals Think; New Science Reveals They're Smarter Than We Realize". You're talking about dogs learning commands. I hate to admit it, but they've probably taught me to respond to more of theirs than vice versa. A sneeze is the equivalent of "ahem", meaning Hey, bozo, the water bowl or the food dish is empty." There's an "Take me for a walk" command, which has a different inflection from "I want to sit on your lap'". We also do a lot of charades. They'll start to whine, and I go through the list until they signal what it is they want. The obese Yorkie is gravitationally challenged and has trouble getting up on chairs. A few weeks ago, he was struggling for awhile and getting nowhere. Then he went to the opposite end of the room, started running like hell, took a flying leap, and made it. It was a funny sight and confirmed my suspicion that there's something between those ears other than vacuum.

 

Not technology.

 

the way we spell separate ?

 

my one dog crapped yesterday, and my other dog went and ate it. That separates me and them by quite a long distance i'd say.

 

I've just got to comment on SpiceyCat's missive about us being set apart by our knowledge of our own mortality. I don't intend to die. I absolutely refuse. One day I'm just going to wander up into the mountains and disappear, but I'll always be there. If you come to find me, I'll know it and be watching you, but I'm not going away. Of course I've never been classified as human anyway. You can die if you want to, but I refuse. Good luck with your plan, cause I've got mine mapped out.

 

the intellectual mind, according to Yogi philosophy

 

The difference between reaching for a banana, and building a space station is less than 1%

 

accept universal language , it's like swallowing something mildly
hallucinogenic . a little shroom perhaps .
stop! no , littler than that one ...

 

Animals definitely do communicate.
Fish communicate through vibrations, wolves howl, cats meow, bees dance,
guinea pigs have a wide variety of sounds they make, and are very verbal creatures.
Body language is also a big part in animal language, as it is in human language also.

What seperates us from non-human animals is the need to own and manipulate everything. An animal just enjoys his/her life. A human has to know why and how life happens, along with how one can derive enjoyment from such a mystery.
A human also must own every invention made by other restless and over-curious humans to feel satisfied and one with other dissatisfied humans
.
This, of course, is a huge generalization, but you get what I'm saying...
We live in a world of frill, whereas animals live in the real world that we abandoned just to destroy ourselves and the land that was once our home along with all the inhabitants that stayed faithful to it...

It's no wonder there is so much ailment in our society...
Well, at least some humans are beginning to go back to nature

 

Animals do not communicate abstractions. Their signals are unambiguous.

 

i saw a show on last night said. the louse is what separated us.

 

what separates man from animal is man. It is a choice.

We have created an alternative reality in which we persue in such a progressive rate as a species that we are killing our-selfs, and the earth. Being raised to take care of yourself, to fend for yourself in a culture full of distractions. money, greed, lust, fame, religion, media, technology, government. Most people are so distracted by the true world, whats really happening. take a step outside and see whats shaking in the real world. remove yourself from your distractions into a more natural enviroment. where you can return thanks for what provids us with every single thing we have and be clearly conscious with no influences, just reality. humans live in such a fiction world. such an interesting balance. each does good as he does bad, but so much good and so much bad, so many humans that no its going to effect something so. just smile because naturally something is going to change about it, its going to be a hoot.

id wild animals have more manners then us. we are the animals.

 

I don't think there's anything wrong with seeing animals as just "other animals."

 

Human bestiality. For instance those epitomes of civility and decency, dogs, were strict non-combatants in Vietnam.

 

From the standpoint of any animal all other animals are just other animals. What separates any animal from any other animal? In general the answer will always be morphology (and psychology for animals with brains).

Humans have two things that really stand out from all known organisms. Language, as has already been mentioned, is a huge one. No known organisms come even close to human language abilities (and despite what you may have read, no chimpanzee has ever learned ASL). Another that separates us from other animals is our advanced capacity for empathy.

If Elephants could talk they would probably talk about how their trunks separate them from the rest of the animals. And they would be largely correct.

 

But is there any just cause for seeing ourselves as superior to other animals? Experientially, who is to say what is better? If I could, I might prefer being a whale. Who knows.

 

"Time"
For if anything is predictable then the turning of the wheel is -
and tomorrow is always about a change, of and in what, which circumatances - who can tell?

 

If anything bacteria are the best organisms. They outnumber us even inside our own bodies. Humans are pretty damn hilarious though, you would be hard pressed to find any organism that acts as silly as us on such a consistent basis.

 

the fact that we walk on land but shit in water.