Animal Eyes Em Spectrum

The Uniqueness Of Being A Human Being: Something's Screwy Somewhere!

There’s just something really special about Homo sapiens relative to all the other animal and plant life forms we share Planet Earth with. Well actually every life form is special in one way or another*, but still humans stand out from the crowd. Many people will attribute that to the alleged ‘fact’ that we were created in God’s image, although IMHO the concept of a supreme, supernatural creator being carries so much dead (philosophical baggage) weight as to have as close to zero credibility as makes no odds. Therefore, I suggest something’s screwy somewhere.

For a few quick examples of human uniqueness, of all the true mammals, humans alone walk exclusively upright – we’re bipedal critters. Why is that so? If the trait of bipedal walking had real survival-of-the-fittest evolutionary significance, I’d expect the walking-on-two-feet trait to be way more common than it is.

We’re also top of the pops when it comes to IQ, and by a very wide margin relative to our primate ancestors, or even the dolphins and whales, not to mention the crow family (like magpies). Again, if extreme intellectuality abilities had some sort of paramount importance in terms of Darwinian natural selection, you’d expect we’d have some animal rivals in whose species will compete with us to be grand master in chess. Alas, no species, other than the human one, will ever lay claim to that title. Artificial intelligence is another issue, but not overly relevant here and now in context.

Now extreme exceptions to the bipedal and IQ rule require some sort of detailed explanation. I’ve dealt with those traits in a separate essay. (Hint: Extraterrestrial intelligence and artificial selection could account for these.)

Humans come in breeds – well we call our breeds’ ‘races’. There are lots of other animals that come in breeds too. The commonality between all our animal (and plant) kin that come in breeds is that we humans were responsible for their creation – our artificial selection versus natural selection. That at first glance doesn’t make us unique, until you stop and wonder who applied artificial selection on us? (Hint: think extraterrestrials again.)

Facial features: How do you help finger and identify the suspect in a crime? Well you try to provide an identikit profile – facial features. Of course you could say the criminal was white – that fits a lot of people; the criminal was male – that fits a lot of people; the criminal was short – that fits a lot of people; the criminal was fat – that fits a lot of people; the criminal was bald – that fits a lot of people. You could say the criminal was white, male, short, fat and bald – that still fits a lot of people. But, match the face to the perpetrator – you’ve got your man! Apply that to an animal – say a man-eating tiger or a crocodile. How do you finger which tiger or crock is the man-eater? By facial features – I think not.

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