Question: What separates man from other life forms?

Claire Lee answered on 27 Jun 2013:

Sam’s got it – the abstract thoughts and language are really the things that separate us.

We are not the strongest, or the fastest, or the biggest of the animals, but we’ve managed to work our way to the top of the food chain through invention and sharing.

A few other animals use objects as tools – an octopus, for example, may pick up a rock to crack open a crab! The thing here that separates humans is that we will take that rock, and then reform it into a better tool to use – as far as I know no other species makes new tools.

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On a more biological side of things, it also has to do with the fact that babies are born really young, which is also a result of our evolution.

When animals are born, they are pretty much the equivalent of a young child (in human terms) – within minutes they are able to run around and feed themselves and generally survive by themselves. As a result, their brains are pretty fully formed, meaning instincts are more fixed, but there is less room for new developments.

However, human babies are almost completely useless when they are born. One of the reasons for this is because we stand upright – our pelvis has to be smaller to support our weight, and that means that the head of the baby can’t be too big. So human babies are actually born really really early, and our brains are much less developed when we are born than an animal’s!

This is good though, because it allows for a lot more individual brain development, more pathways in the brain being created, which ultimately leads to greater intelligence.