Meditations

[Sublevel 114]

yep, in middle school

[ENIHCAMBUS]

This is not big...

...This is colossal!

[WorldisQuiet5256]

Okay, I realize something.
The reason we exist.
We are born, we live, we die.
We have both a beginning and an end.

But, if we did not exist, not have a beginning or an end, we never existed.
Therefore if we never had a starting point to which it ended, we can say we always existed.

[Sublevel 114]

Someday, we will know why we exist.

[Vortex]

Well, I don't think our existence has any special meaning.

[Sublevel 114]

Well, I don't think our existence has any special meaning.

maybe

but why we became smart creatures
and hell why Earth has live on it

we can discover these mysteries

(if we don't kill ourselves)

[The Kakama]

but why we became smart creatures

Frankly speaking, I wouldn't call human beings "smart".
But I have an idea for that: first, we learned how to walk on two legs; this freed out front limbs to evolve into arms with hand that can hold tools, which in turn helped us develop writing, which allowed us to pass information from one generation to the next, and the collective knowledge of many generations is what made us intelligent.

[Vortex]

I agree. I don't think humans have special capacities that fundamentally distinguish us from other animals, if for example dolphins or octopuses developed some form of writing they could have easily reached the same level of civilization than us with time.

[Isobel The Sorceress]

I agree. I don't think humans have special capacities that fundamentally distinguish us from other animals, if for example dolphins or octopuses developed some form of writing they could have easily reached the same level of civilization than us with time.

There are some abilities which do distinguish us:
Humans have a rather evolved way of communicating. We can communicate abstract thoughts. We are also very imaginative and creative. We give names to ourselves and to the objects and creatures around us.
We are the only species with traditions, customs, culture, music, art, mythologies, superstition and religion.
We do some things purely to amuse ourselves.
We are (most likely) the only species that can truly plan ahead based on previous experiences and memories, not just instinct.
We are not the only self-aware species, but self-awareness is very rare.
We are also aware of our mortality. It is kind of difficult to find out if other species are, so we don't know for sure if we are the only ones.

And I don't think octopuses are that smart.
But dolphins on the other hand are very clever, social and self-aware. And with their ability to use high-pitch sounds to echo-locate, they may also be able to communicate quite a lot of information. They could have evolved some kind of culture.

[The Kakama]

But dolphins on the other hand are very clever, social and self-aware. And with their ability to use high-pitch sounds to echo-locate, they may also be able to communicate quite a lot of information. They could have evolved some kind of culture.

Don't forget whales too. Either way you've shown that our distinguishing mental capabilities aren't special, but we can't know for sure, since we don't understand their language. I think it is the shape of our bodies that truly distinguish us from most other animals, as well as higher relative intelligence. The combination is key.