What is so special about us?!?

[Pippy]

@Pippy: Please calculate the following number without a computer: 413 + 2(32 + 45) - 382 + 47428 / 43
How long did that take you? Compare it with the computer you are using right now, and it takes the computer approximately as long to do such as it takes for you to type it in. To be honest... it doesn't take long to figure out which system is 'stronger'.

Thank you for your input. I tried to explain that I understood this, and said that my brain is far more advanced than most computers, except in math and reading 1's and 0's. So yes, as I have already specified, a computer can do this math equation faster than I. But a computer can't problem solve effectively. Certainly can't learn as well as we. If you think the comp in front of you is smarter or more advanced than yourself, I feel you are selling yourself short. We humans are far more advanced than anything we have constructed, almost by necessity.

False benchmark.
How about this:
The vector space calculations it takes to facilitate bipedal motion - can a computer the same size of a human brain do them faster and in tandem as efficiently as the human brain? Answer - No.
The machine merely makes up for the lack of ability with raw functions per second.

Well put. A computer still has trouble walking. It never learned to walk, we had to teach it every step of the way. You are correct, and have put the point much more poignantly than I, thank you. What makes us special? I wonder this often, it is an interesting piece of philosophy. Dogs dream, animals scheme... It was already mentioned that most animals have better sensory abilities than us. I think the thing that may define us is a soul. The ability to disconnect from your body, to identify with something other than your body and mind, and to be able to do all of the abstract thinking that comes from this natural and necessary disassociation... But it is an unanswerable question in a sense, part of the "great conversation" of philosophy.

Thank you.

[Meatball]

Aside: I read somewhere that humans have the record for long distance running. That sounds like it has a lot of conditions(how long? how fast?) but it might be something!

[Edwardo Piet]

I bet that's just because we'll do it for no good reason other than accomplishment or to show off... other animals won't do that (except to show off to a mate etc.,.....).

EvF

[Zen Badger]

What makes us special?

Because we look up at the stars and wonder what they are.

[Pippy]

That curiosity is a good thing, yes?

[Edwardo Piet]

But it is US that decides that that is special

Purely self-given "specialness".

EvF

[Pippy]

No, the human curiosity is not assigned or decided upon by us, I don't think. All humans are curious, it is a "specialness" that we did not seem to decide upon.

Here is another angle: Where is the specialness? I heard a new report yesterday that the amount of DNA that is unique to humans is only about 1.5%. The number used to be higher and it has been whittled down until recently it got so low. Where in that 1.5% of unique DNA is everything that differentiates us as human? Or is it not there, we are looking in the wrong place?

[Nova]

Dogs dream, animals scheme... It was already mentioned that most animals have better sensory abilities than us. I think the thing that may define us is a soul.

That reminds me of something a priest told me when I was in primary school.

He came into the school assembly with his dog, and asked the dog what 3+4 equalled. As you can imagine the dog did nothing, and so he asked us. Someone put up their hand, and answered 7. He then went on to explain that this is why people have souls and will go to heaven, and why dogs don't have souls and won't go to heaven.

I dismissed it as nonsense, because my calculator could do maths better than I could. So it was either that the priest lied, or heaven is full of calculators.

I do not believe that humans are special, and I don't think there'll be any conclusive way to show that we are in fact special due to the subjectivity of the matter. But I guess some people find comfort in believing that they're superior to everything else.

[chatpilot]

The only thing special about us is that we are the only species on the planet that think we are special.

[Chocobo]

We think we are special because that's how we evolved, just like how we evolved the concept of beauty and love. People then tried to put reason to why we had these "special" traits before Darwin and invented religion.