/lit/ - Literature

We are the only ones who made Apache attack helicopters.

It has machine guns AND missiles!

the intellect and will, duh

>>7257336
self awareness

>>7257336
Heart and Mind
sadly most people's hearts have corroded away in this modern day and age

>>7257347
>animals don't have a will
then there are no animals for they are all dead

>>7257336
We are animals, though. Unless you're saying what separates us from non-sapient animals, in which case that's pretty self explanatory. Good try at philosophy, though. Just leave it to people that don't ask stupid questions.

>>7257352
this might explain my arrhythmia

and i thought it was because of my drinking

>>7257358
nice try Satan

We can convince ourselves that we are different than animals and rationalize it to ourselves.
Sick joke when you think about it

>>7257358
Except it's not self explanatory at all.
There's no solid definition of sapience and the line blurs every day as science learns more about humans and other animals.
In the end the difference is actually not that huge, we are just good at thinking too highly of ourselves.

>>7257352
>dogs and cats taking in puppies, kittens, mice, chicks, fawns, all manner of young animal
>nurture them and show enduring affection for them
>these creatures have no heart

You don't see it as much in wild ones that are accustomed to a brutal struggle to survive, but then, you don't see as much compassion in savages, either. Humans are vastly more intelligent than any other animal, which does set us apart, but it doesn't change that we are the same sort of earthly organisms as dogs and fish.

>>7257336
Memes

>>7257637

Crows have memes, as do chimpanzees, dolphins, finches, gerbils, and other animals.

>>7257360
>man is not an animal
Nice try Scientologist.

Very little. We lucked into big brains and thumbs; change the timeline 1% and it's orangutans driving us to extinction instead of vice versa.

We're generalists, animals are specialists.

Problem solved.

>>7257344
A-and rockets too! Don't forget about those.

But seriously, nothing. We are animals. Just really pretentious, technologically advanced, animals.

The ability to be spiritual

Whereas animal lures are straightforward, the human being is unique in being capable of a special kind of lure which involves a "double deception."
This is a kind of lure which involves deceiving by pretending to deceive (i.e. telling a truth that one expects to be taken for a lie) *sniff*

*tugs shirt* The classic example of the properly human lure is the joke quoted by Freud (and often cited by Lacan) about the two Polish Jews: "Why do you tell me you are going to Cracow so I'll believe you are going to Lvov, when you are really going to Cracow?"

>>7257336
you? nothing. nothing separates you from a rock either

me? I am me.

Only for humans does the disposal of waste (poopies) become an issue

i am a genius

Please, /lit/. Your flatironing of this subject is unflattering.

Millions or just a lot of nucleotide base pairs. You see, we are animals, really. The divergence time of our last common ancestor was also millions of years. I am sure of the postulation that animals were just as inhuman then as we are today.

Morality has no room when one of ya is going to starve to death after a drought. No room for altruism except maybe in the frigid tundras where meat fat is seasonally abundant.


It's probably all worked out somewhere in the stacks but then I wouldn't have time to post my wild speculations about seal feelings.

>>7257683
That's true, actually. Monkeys never have a sewage system back up.

....have we gotten worse at shitting?

>>7257691
Actually we did, at least the west did.
Humans are supposed to squat to shit, it relaxes the anal muscles and straightens the rectum.
The sitting position fucks this up and makes it much harder to shit, leading to all sorts of problems like hemorrhoids and even heart attacks.
Just Google squat vs sit defecation and will you find a lot of stuff about this.
So laugh all you want at the dumb animals and chinks with their "holes in the floor", they are the ones who actually have life figured out.

>>7257703
So that's why it's easier if you lean forward!! I've done that forever, just thought I was weird... it all makes sense now.

This has become /poo/, the shitting general.

>>7257336
we are metaphysical beings

The ability to choose to worship Lord Jaddeth over our own lusts

Long lifespan, good memory, language, and forming pacts that became larger and larger. Taking eachothers responsibilities and worries of starving and safety away slowly until we had extra time on our hands.

Free time.

Then curiosity took over, found conveniences starting with simple tools, then trading with other tribes.

It goes on from there but i think that's the jist of it.

Oh, and thumbs!

The use of memes

>>7257350
Elephants are self aware.

>>7257785
They don't have opposable thumbs tho.

>>7257787
they have big ears lol

>>7257796
(!)

>>7257653
But do they have anonymous internet forums?

>>7257336
Fences, of course

>>7257979
I'm a koala

>>7257787
Their trunks can manipulate objects.

>>7257979
Dolphins do.
There is a kind of crab called Dardanus santicus with a unique symmetrical shell, a group of dolphins learned to eat the crabs and then modulate their sonar vocalizations inside the empty shell.
Due to the shape of the shell the sound stays inside it for almost an entire week, the dolphins then drop the shells in strategic places where they are picked up and listened by others.
It's still not exactly known what kind of messages they are sharing but the scientists think it's about the whereabouts of other tasty crabs or "shark nearby" warnings.

>>7257336
Nothing anon, unless our species finds a way to transcend the forces of reality and the death.

Mostly this:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Concealed_ovulation

>>7257354
well, they dont, they have appetites

>>7257336

Advanced Mathematics

>>7258012
Which they've been doing since the beginning of history. The most famous of our kind are the ones who taught transcendence.

>>7257680
Hahaha, doing my gott's work, man

>>7258062
>Mathematics
pure imagination though....
analytical knowledge is not knowledge.

We have religion :^)

Hence we are not animals.

Our ability to adapt.

Many animals can and have adapted to their surroundings but have gone above and beyond.

Tell me which animal has turned from the hunted to the hunter with such effectiveness that the only beast that can stand up to us is ourselves.

Sure, a lion can kill a man, but it can't destroy a tank. We are the apex predator of the animal kingdom. If alien life came to our planet in order to destroy us, we would topple them within a year.

>>7258080
lol please gtfo

>>7257996
That is fucking awesome!

>>7258093
I think it's more our capacity for abstract thought cpupled with our ability to make plans. As far as I'm aware animals can only react to stimuli, whereas we have the ability to think a step ahead.

>>7257336
Pretentiousness

>>7257336
Actually I think it is our capacity for suicide. I think the fact that we have that ability to terminate our own lives makes us unique

>>7258111
Dude, haven't you heard about lemmings?

>>7257681
Solipsism is untenable

>>7258116
Yeah, disney compelled them to commit suicide which was apparently done out of stupidity instead of a rather selfish decision.

Animals don't have Jesus

/thread

Many of the things mentioned in this thread can be observed with animals. The difference is gradual, not kathegorical.

>>7258121
Disney actually threw them down that waterfall. They did not an hero'd themselves.

>>7258111
Dolphines and whales often commit suicide in zoos by basically bashing their own skull in. They swim against the walls at full speed until they go belly-up.

>>7258144
To kill themselves or escape?

>the average person doesn't gnouthi seuton

No dignity befitting the human estate. This is why our world is being polluted into oblivion, why free energy doesn't exist, why world hunger still exists, etc. Do you not realize that when you establish self-respect in yourself, you begin to cultivate it in others? And it bo longer becomes a matter of mainstream consumerist unconsciousness but of self-governance and mutual altruis. This is conduct befitting the human estate. We have the power to exalt this world and the life on it, and in doing so, becoming God on earth. Instead we cling to old systems, institutions, ideas, weaknesses that are all obsolete and lead to nothing but stagnation.

>>7258168
Free energy doesn't exist because of thermodynamics you tinfoil-tipping fagboy

>>7258147
i think dolphins are too smart to try to escape like that. as for whales ask your mom

>>7258062
Animals do plenty advanced mathematics. Birds when flying for example.

>>7258083
https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/animal-emotions/200911/do-animals-have-spiritual-experiences-yes-they-do


>>7257667
Can you explain further. I'm pretty sure humans are specialists as well.


Nothing really, we are just advanced monkeys. Monkeys can learn the concept of money and exchange, they are just like us.

https://youtu.be/amg08t0TQOY?t=1m22s

>>7257661

So humans without a thumb is an animal?

We are featherless bipeds

>>7258062
This is comedic excellence although it should just end with "free dog souls with conversion"

>>7257336
Voting the wrong political party.

>>7257986
my trunk can manipulate your mom

Nothing.

The walls of my house tbh

>>7257744
i think what you mean by 'taking each others worries away', is actually through improvements in technology. You sugarcoat a phenomenon that has been used to kill ever since the beginning of tool use.

God

Humans are animals, you know, by definition, and by fact. Whales have much subtler intelligence anyways

REASON

REASON, YOU DUMB MOTHERFUCKERS

REMEMBER YOUR FUCKING PLATO

Nothing. We're animals. No difference between humans and other animals proves we're not animals. There are differences between all species. How can anyone in the year 2015 think humans are somehow distinct from animals?

>>7257336
"ζῶον λόγον ἔχον"

>bees make beehive
>So natural!
>humans make house
>Unnatural!

Our role in the food chain, IE, we tamed it, then transcended it.

>>7260352
Way to flatiron. You really couldn't be more oppositional to developmental biology, which is a fact without exceptions, than this. You're also about more than a billion years off and willfully ignorant of any depth to this subject that is more than a puddle's worth. Not even getting your shoes wet kind of ignorance but you claim to be in the water. Good job.

>>7257336
The answer you seek is intrinsic to the very nature of your question.
What separates us from animals ?
Because we, humans, ask questions.

>>7258080
That you don't understand that doesn't make it imaginary.

>>7260340
A conscious? Higher reasoning? Art? Logic? Appreciation for beauty? Virtue? The list goes on and on.

Lord. No wonder you faggots are all on pharmaceuticals, you're out of your right minds with a worldview so bleak and frankly, fucking stupid. It's like you find no meaning in anything at all... exactly like an animal. Idealism is a human impulse. Get with the times you fucking troglodytes. Tired of your shit

>>7257996
>seach Dardanus santicus on google
>zero results

you filthy lier

>>7260482
Why do our questions separate us from animals? Even cows have some curiosity.

>>7257336
4chan

>>7257336
Cooking

>>7257347
That just makes us super-animals

>>7258093
You should enjoy this

>>7262918

>>7262925

>>7262929

>>7257336
The ability to accept self-sacrifices and austerities by one's own choice.

>>7257336
Free will.

>>7262935

>>7262940

Cont?

>>7262564
Yeah, curiosity and all, there's anothere way if you think about it, see :
Take some monkeys with genetic data similar to ours, if you train them they will pass memorys tests, analytical tests, all that, you know, the stuff with the different shapes, or stuff with buttons to press...
But if you conceive a test where they must gather information in order to win they won't do it, that's it.

The ability to feel smug

>>7258393

>>7260336
>IMAGINATION
>
>IMAGINATION, YOU DUMB MOTHERFUCKERS
>

A theory of mind

/thread

>>7257681
underrated post

>>7262495
It was merely a work of fiction. :^)

>Words.

>Cubic Wisdom

You choose.

>shows off his beautiful Jewish smile.

Art

>>7262975
Are there not successful tests where monkeys had to solve a puzzle? Puzzles by their nature are about gathering information to come up with a solution. Something where they needed to examine the environment to come up with a solution. Such as stacking a bunch of different sized block to reach something up high. That seems like something that would count towards monkeys being on par with us.

>mfw I'm arguing monkeys would build pyramids

Ok, maybe they don't.

>>7257336
Technology

>>7263164
>Cubic Wisdom
the fuck?

Faustian spirits and eternal reoccurence.

Men do their own homework

>>7264593
oh you

We ARE animals.

Nous

>>7260551
Difference of degree, not kind.

>>7257996
>>7262495
>>7263161
well done tbh

Rationality

>>7257336
we are the only species that does things out of spite

>>7262925
Hatred, I suppose.

>>7260551
None of that disproves what I said. If believing we're somehow not animals makes you feel better, go ahead and believe that. All you did was list human qualities. Are giraffes not animals because their necks are unique to them? No, that's just a trait that separates them from other animals. One thing that separates we humans from other animals is our intelligence, which allows us to appreciate art and reason at a higher level. If my outlook is somehow bleak to you, that's your problem. I don't find it bleak at all and I don't ever plan on using pharmaceuticals.

i'm surprised no one's mentioned language in the thread, it's the first thing that bops into people's heads when they get rid of this "rational animal" sidetrack philosophy has led us into

...poetically man dwells...

>>7265023
Animals have language, it's pretty common.

>>7258062
>catholic church
>saying all dogs go to heaven

Mildly worrying

The Mediterranean

>>7265083
The painted themselves into a corner by refusing to properly distinguish the soul from the animus tbqh.

>>7258194

"Animals do plenty advanced mathmatics"


..


"Birds when flying for example"

>ctrl+f
>Not Culture

>>7265655
Most smarter animals have culture.

>>7265450

you have no idea that you've correctly solved the problem until you can check a calculator or build a calculator using intuition alone (reading Principia Mathematica and EE manuals to do so counts as checking a calculator), since I doubt you can do the latter you're no more intelligent than this guy

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clever_Hans

>>7258194
>Animals do plenty advanced mathematics.
whoa, hold your horses for a second

>>7265664
>>7265665
>hansmind
HIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIROOOOOOOOO

plastic surgery

>>7265658
..............................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................

>>7257983

best post itt

>>7258105

well you're not aware enough, crows use traffic to crack nuts for them

>>7265921
Also they can solve complex puzzles with 8 steps in the right order.

>>7260301

doesn't stop us from BTFO'ing them with based harpoons

>>7260352

eusociality > presociality tbh, Hymenopterans are the most advanced lifeforms on this planet.

>>7258125
lucky them.

>>7264177

No, he means a test where the aim is just aimlessly gathering information with no real solution. That's what humans do, we absorb entire bookshelves of knowledge and then never use it except to relay it to others so they can absorb it, all just because of curiosity. Obviously the evolutionary benefit of curiosity and knowledge gathering is so that we can find solutions to problems we might encounter in our lives (long term conscious planning which takes the entire run of your life from birth to death into account is also pretty unique to humans I would think, for example enrolling in education and study), but it still is, in general, rather aimless because we are information sponges. It also helps that we can preserve information accumulated from thousands of past generations and that we can pass information really easily between one another via language and abstract thought etc., otherwise we'd have to work out basic functions of the natural world all over again every time a new generation rolled around.

That's one thing I'd say was unique to us, or at least the extent of it.

>>7265068

that's true, but nothing as complex and efficient as ours tbh. our communication is so advanced that it can break down the barrier between minds, in an abstract manner, no matter what wittgenstein might say

>>7265783

but they do. just because the difference between bottlenose dolphin culture and modern human culture is stark, doesn't make it categorical, it's still gradistic. even though this guy >>7266150 is right about the extent of our cultural transmission skills, it's still just gradistic (an example of a study on dolphin cultural transmission: http://www.pnas.org/content/102/25/8939.full).).

And while we are much more advanced than dolphins when it comes to the extent of our culture-building and cultural transmission, dolphins are much more advances than us when it comes to the extent of our swimming and echolocation abilities, and our ability to do sick loop-da-loops through hoops at SeaWorld.

>mfw anthropocentrists had opinions near me

>>7257336
Very little, according to biotruthers

>>7257336
Since no one has said it yet.

MAN IS THE AAAAAAAAAAAANIMAL.

>>7266243

Well, biotruthism neglects to acknowledge socialised and learned behaviour in humans, but animals have socialised and learned behaviour as well. Biotruthers oversimplify and misunderstand the nuances of all animal behaviour, not just humans.

>>7266268
When you'll strip your plastic bag, then you'll see, then you'll see, then you'll see...
Man is the animal, man is divine, there is no time, there is no time.

>>7257336

Language

>>7266268
ANGELS ARE MATHEMATICAL

>>7266150
Ah ok, Thank you for clarifying.

So then what separates from us from animals is our highly developed brain that allows us have abstract thoughts. To the point where we can share and understand ideas. However that phrase you used, "information sponges" catches my eye because it suggests that we do collect information almost out of habit rather than have to actively use this ability.

I suppose then, that even if a creature had a brain nearly identical to our own but lacked this habit would act very differently from us. That might even become the definitive trait that makes us humans. Should such a species arise.

>ability to create art
>ability to reason abstractly
>ability to consciously choose something that is not and will never be in our own self interest (also know as gettin' spook'd)
>consciousness of the self

of course some animals of a higher order show rudimentary development in these traits. however, humans exhibit them in such a radically different degree that thinking of us as being of a different level of creation is reasonable enough

>>7266804

>However that phrase you used, "information sponges" catches my eye because it suggests that we do collect information almost out of habit rather than have to actively use this ability.

I would agree the way we absorb raw information as well as basic problem solving is something humans engage in out of habit and general behaviour, rather than active decision-making.

>I suppose then, that even if a creature had a brain nearly identical to our own but lacked this habit would act very differently from us. That might even become the definitive trait that makes us humans. Should such a species arise.

I don't think it would function as a species because one of the things that makes us so good at surviving is our ability to immediately solve problems and take specific courses of action. When most animals are put in sticky situations, like caught in a trap or something, they will just go nuts and wile out and exhaust themselves trying the same methods to escape and probably injure themselves some more in the process. They run on what we'd call 'basic instinct'. Humans will pretty quickly start solving the problem of how to escape and absorb all the information of their situation in order to aid in that. Humans will probably use the knowledge of their own capabilities (like how struggle will exhaust them) to help themselves. It's still instinctive because your body is instinctively searching for methods of escape from the trap, but its tapping into more complex problem solving functions than 'struggle as hard as possible until you escape or die'.
While, yeah, we have the capacity to panic, its not always the immediate response and its something we can get control over and stop doing, while a rabbit with its neck caught in a fence wont.

I would say that maybe other problem solvers like chimps do unconsciously observe the situation in order to solve it, but their solving abilities are simply not as good as ours.

We create art to reflect on life.
Also the pursuit of understanding our environment to master nature.

I expected more from /lit/

>>7258393
cant stop laughing

>>7257336
Nothing. We both move towards stimulus that makes us feel good and away from what doesn't. The only difference is that we can comprehend why stimuli makes us feel good. Not a reader, not a thinker, just some druggy.

>>7268790
/lit/ is in a stage of contrarianism against logic and factual data. once everyone becomes illogical they will do a 180 and logical analysis will be cool again. just give it some time.

>>7269673
Also, I just realized how inconsistent and wrong my grammar is. Oh well.

>>7257979
how could you know if they dont ??

communicaton

>>7257336
Laws of war.

>>7258147
To sudoku.

Desire to separate from the animals.

I wonder if whale song contains a certain amount of garbled nonsense about what separates whales from other species?

we can consciously trigger a smile and are able to cry

my diary tbh

our ability to experience a beautiful spectrum of suffering

Nothing.

>>7273560
I remember I was so depressed that one day I could not consciously force a smile. I had lost the willpower to move the muscles in my face.

>>7257336
I mean sure, you can lump us into the categorization of 'animal' but what separates us from the rest is written language.

We are the only animal able to learn and change our behavior based on something outside of verbal communication.

>>7257336
We are animals. We may have some unique properties but we are primates

>>7257336
divorce

>>7257336
The unwillingness to extend our compassion beyond our geographically temporal gestalt, because it is more convenient to feel responsible only for one thing.
It is weakness expressed, mascerading insecurely as dominance.