The Human Spark

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Teaching

• The transmission of knowledge is what allowed humans to succeed as a society
• We learned and grew as a species
• New discoveries quickly became wide spread due to our communication
• Animals tend to learn through mimicry:
• Apes watch others use tools and learn how to use the tools by proxy
• As seen earlier with the cods the other cods figured out how to use the tag by watching the innovative fish
• In this way animal knowledge can be spread around a localized area
• However some species show a capacity for true teaching
• Apes have been observed sharing tools with their young, especially when the tool was more complex
• Cheetahs have been observed teaching their young to hunt by capturing a young prey animal and letting the cubs attempt to hunt it
• Meerkats teach their young how to destinger a scorpion by handing it an incapacitated one and progressively hand them more and more lively scorpions
• Another species with the capacity for teaching is the Rock Ant
• When a rock ant finds a new food source it returns to the nest and then proceeds to guide other ants to said food source
• It does this using a method known as tandem running
• The two ants run together with the teacher ant leading the way at a slower pace while the student ant follows
• The teacher ant lets the student ant survey the environment and explore before receiving a cue from the student to keep moving

Culture

• What we have as humans that makes us unique is our advanced culture
• Other animals do have cultures, they:
• Form societies and bands
• Spread techniques and innovations
• Demonstrate teamwork
• Have politics
• However we are currently the only species to create a written language
• As demonstrated by the image our ancestors had a sense of culture
• They developed a written language
• They created works for other people to learn from
• Maps
• Spiritual art
• While other animals can teach and learn and invent and communicate and problem solve
• It is only humans that have created such a rich and sophisticated culture of written knowledge and works and that is one of the few things that still make us unique

Citations

The Human Spark

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What Makes Humans Unique and Why Humans Aren't as Unique as You Think

Tool Making and Use

• Tools were extremely important in our development as a species.
• Many other species today have been observed to make and modify parts of their environment in order to make tools. These include:
• Crows and Ravens
• Octopuses
• Apes such as chimps
• Certain species of fish have been observed to use tools
• Can smash hard shelled prey against rocks to break them open (as shown in the above video)
• Use precise shots of water to knock prey off of leaves
• Use sand to clean or hide objects
• Tool-making and use use to be the key defining feature of humans that separated us from other animals
• We know now that it is not a trait exclusive to humans or even primates.

Invention and Problem Solving

• Problem solving is another trait originally thought to be uniquely human
• Many animals are unable to spontaneously invent a new way to do things or refine age old techniques
• As shown in the video, some birds such as crows and Ravens, have the ability to solve problems
• They can fashion and modify tools
• Understand cause and effect
• Adapt to solve problems
• Apes have also demonstrated problem solving skills, so have some fish
• Once in a controlled environment, cod were taught to pull on a string to receive food
• A cod figured out that it could loop the string around its identification tag and pull it by swimming
• This allowed it to gain access to the food slightly faster
• Soon all the other cods in the tank were doing it too
• This demonstrates a capacity for flexibility and innovation

Jack of all Trades

• Homo sapiens and or ancestors were never really specialists
• We evolved in a way that ensured we could always adapt to new threats
• Becoming a specialist can lead to evolutionary dead ends and overreliance on a certain climate or condition
• The P. Boisei was an example of a specialist
• Strong teeth
• Powerful stomach
• Capable of eating dry roots during droughts
• However they became too specialized and stopped evolving, leading to their extinction when the climate changed.
• Homo Sapiens's ancestors never dominated in a particular area, but there continued evolution allowed them to grow and adapt to any threat they faced.
• Struggle leads to adaptation and adaptation leads to success

Mental Adaptability

• Humans have the most complex brain of any animal on earth
• To deal with struggles and new environments, primitive humans had to evolve their brain
• As shown in the image, we progressively developed bigger skulls to house our brains
• As we grew smarter and gained access to better foods we were able to support bigger brains
• Having bigger and more complex brains enabled us to adapt to new environments and solve problems more effectively
• In addition it gave us longer memories which ensured that we could function better both socially and in new environments
• Better brains also enabled us to form more complex social groups, invent better and more effective tools and coo-operate and communicate more effectively
• Studies have shown that our brain size increased fastest when the world was most unpredictable
• Natural selection left only the smartest primitive humans alive, so it was those that were most fit to reproduce.

Supple Language

• One of Humanity's key defining features is our complex and full language
• Enables us to transmit information more effectively
• Function better in groups
• As mentioned in the image, human words can be used to string together infinite sentences and ideas (some more nonsensical than others)
• Other animals have languages with various degrees of complexity
• Chimps can communicate simple commands and feelings using both physical gestures and calls
• Dolphins are a species with an extremely complex language
• Like humans they are able to string together words to form sentences
• They use various pulses and hums to transmit messages

Complex Social Structures

• Humans form many meaningful relationships in our lifetime
• Our relationships are all part of a complex social structure which was developed over many generations
• Group power dynamics and political relationships enabled us to survive more effectively as a species
• As our brains evolved we became able to communicate better and develop our language
• This helped us to form bands and teams and function as societies, which was key to surviving in a rapidly changing climate.
• I chose this image as it is a recreation of a primitive human band gathering around a fire, it shows them conversing and working together to survive.
• All sorts of animals today are able to form complex social structures and power dynamics
• Chimpanzees demonstrate group politics and political thinking
• Chimps have been observed to form coalitions to increase power within groups
• They understand the importance of forming relationships to increase one's survival and power and reproductive fitness

Cooperation and Altruism

• Cooperation was key to the survival of early humans
• Many of our evolutions, such as language, good memory and expressive eyes help us succeed in social and group settings
• Being able to cooperate helped us:
• Share information hunt and gather food more effectively
• Increase individual powers within a group
• This image shows an example of early humans teaming up to kill a bigger animal which I thought was a good example of primitive teamwork
• Many animals especially pack animals demonstrate teamwork, some examples are:
• Wolves
• Lions
• Hyenas
• Meerkats
• Altruism is another important social power humans developed
• Acting altruistically increased ones standing within the group and demonstrated good character
• Forming alliances and using favors contributed to the complex groups primitive humans developed and gave one advantages in power struggles
• Demonstrating good altruism and social skills made one more reproductively fit and increased the likelihood of getting a mate (pretty sure it still does)
• Once again Chimpanzees can demonstrate altruism to improve political power and personal appeal

Imagination

• The most unique thing about humans is our imagination
• We have an ability to imagine the world we cannot see and believe in concepts like dying of the afterlife
• This imagination helps us to invent new tools and ideas and helps us prepare for future scenarios
• However we are not the only animal with the ability to do so
• Certain animals such as chimpanzees have demonstrated a capacity for imagination
• The video mentions how chimpanzees care for "rock dolls"
• They treat these dolls like baby chimps, despite the fact that they are rocks
• This demonstrates a capacity for imagination and fantasy

Conceptual Understanding

• Humans can understand and theorize about non-physical concepts such as gravity and time, our ancestors were able to too.
• Being able to understand these concepts helped us develop new technologies and predict environmental changes as well as cause and effect.
• In addition these concepts helped us to hunt food in unorthodox ways, such as pushing rocks onto large animals like mammoths
• Studies have also shown that certain animals, like apes. Are able to understand the concept of gravity
• As shown in the linked article, apes are able to infer from the weight of objects their contents
• From a survival perspective this helps them tell which food items contain more food than others
• But it also demonstrates a small understanding of the concept of weight and gravity
• Archerfish are another animal that understand metaphysical concepts
• They know how to aim their controlled jets of water to hit pray in motion
• In addition they shoot more water for bigger targets showing an understanding of weight
• In the video we can observe how the archerfish adjusts its shot to account for further away targets
• They understand optical distortion and can account for it