What's So Special About Human Beings? | Unveiled

What’s So Special About Human Beings?

Humans are indisputably at the top of the Earth’s food chain. We are the most intelligent species on the planet, and have used this intelligence to migrate to every corner of the globe, overcome hostile environments, and build some of the most amazing things in the planet’s history. But why is it that we’re the only ones capable of all this?

This is Unveiled, and today we’re answering the extraordinary question: what’s so special about human beings?

The idea that humans are special isn’t unanimously believed, and it’s true that in many ways we’re far from unique. We belong to a specific biological order, primates, and because of this can trace our ancestors back down the evolutionary timeline and can determine which other primates are our closest relatives. We’re also mammals and have things in common with every other mammal on the planet. Because of this, some biologists say that the characteristics that set us apart from other animals are just extremes of more universal traits. Other creatures form social bonds, feel emotions, communicate with each other, and have some level of self-awareness – humans do the exact same things, but more intensely.

But, so too are there things humans do that are just a little weird compared to most other species in the animal kingdom. We’re bipedal, for instance, moving about on two legs. This is in spite of the fact that walking on two legs causes a lot of problems. For example, childbirth is much more difficult for humans than other animals because of the way our pelvises have changed. On the up side, bipedalism frees up our hands to create and use tools; hand dexterity may have been a driving force behind the evolution of our brains. Humans are also one of only five species to go through menopause, and are the only species to do so who live on land; the others are all whales.

Still, we’re not the ONLY species to walk on two legs, go through menopause, or use tools. It’s really our intelligence that seems to set us apart, letting us design much more complex tools, and to put our older, non-reproductive years to good use by contributing to the survival of our family units. So, what makes us so clever? Part of the reason is probably the sheer NUMBER of neurons in the human brain. By dissolving the human brain in a fluid that leaves only the nuclei behind, Brazilian neuroscientist Suzana Herculano-Houzel was able to count how many neurons we have for the first time: around 86 billion. Mind you, African elephants actually have MORE neurons, at 257 billion! Our cerebrum, however, is much more densely packed, with 16 billion neurons. The only animal with more neocortical neurons is the long-finned pilot whale - which has over 37 billion!

Even so, we do far exceed the neuron counts of other primates. How did this happen? Well, larger brains require more energy. The human brain, for instance, uses 25% of our energy every day. Humans have developed a way to get more energy from less food, allowing our brains to increase in size. So, what is this mysterious method that let us grow our cortex? Cooking! The thing humans do that truly sets us apart from the rest of the animal kingdom is the fact that we cook, and it was the invention of cooking, many researchers believe, that rapidly increased human development.

Of course, it can’t JUST be the number of neurons that defines our intelligence. There’s also something about the WAY that the human brain is put together that allows for more abstract thought, and makes us more self-aware. Key factors in this are our advanced social cognition, the development of language, and the way these have led to the emergence of human culture.

Animals can all communicate, but none have vocal language like humans do. Dogs and cats often use their vocalisations purely to interact with humans, relying on body language and scent to interact with one another. Dolphins and orcas have been found to have “dialects” of their own, but it’s still not as nuanced or complex as human language. Language acquisition has been tested in bonobos, most famously in the case of Kanzi, a bonobo raised in captivity who has been taught to use and interpret hundreds of signs and symbols from a lexigram, which he uses to communicate with humans. He’s even been known to copy human vocalisations and knows how to build a fire. But it’s not just the human brain that lets us create words, sentences, dialects, and languages; the larynx also has a large role to play, and allows us to create incredibly varied and subtle vocalizations.

Our use of language, a system of symbols, to represent the world around us, facilitates much more abstract thought. The ability to sit around and think about things, speculating about matters that don’t relate to anything in our immediate environment, isn’t something that other animals are really capable of - at least, as far as we know. Other animals don’t wonder how the universe works, ponder the meaning of their own existences, or fantasize about completely fantastical, impossible worlds. Nor are they capable of expressing their emotions in abstract ways, such as through art. Chimps are intelligent and very similar to us, but they can’t write poetry, make films, or use symbolism and metaphor to explain themselves. It’s this ability that lets us understand how bad humans have been for the environment, but also about how we might go about fixing it, and what Earth might look like in the future when we’re long gone.

The human imagination isn’t just the driving force behind art, it’s led to innovations of all kinds throughout our history. In order to invent everything from the wheel to computers, someone had to sit down and think through how things worked and how this knowledge could be applied to make it useful. This ability is made even more integral to humanity through “cumulative culture”, also called “ratcheting”, which is the way we continually build on ideas and inventions of the past to make new things, without losing the knowledge we started with. For example, even though we now have clocks and watches, we haven’t forgotten what sundials are or how they work. Advancing our technology has made basic survival easier and easier, letting us to turn our attention to other disciplines – everything from architecture to theoretical physics to writing novels, all things that we alone do.

Most important of all has been the development of medicine. Now we can understand and treat a variety of ailments that baffled our ancestors just a few centuries ago, and we don’t only help humans with this knowledge. Veterinary science is just as complex and wouldn’t exist if we ourselves weren’t so advanced.

Of course, there are downsides to human ingenuity. In our thirst for technological advancement, the environment has suffered, and plenty of creatures have gone extinct because of our influence. It’s not just the planet we’re good at killing, either; humans have spent thousands of years coming up with effective ways to kill one another, from swords and bows to bombs and guns, making us the most violent and destructive species on Earth. But it’s also true that the very same rockets that launch nuclear missiles are the ones that have sent us into space. Discovery and destruction are often two sides of the same coin.

The human brain has an astonishing number of neurons relative to the size of our brain and body, and has evolved to specialize in complex and sometimes abstract tasks and interactions. This allows us to achieve a level of higher thought that distinguishes our species from others. But it could also be our downfall ...

And that’s what’s so special about human beings.