Asylum Forums - What makes us human?

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Posted by Oracular_Jinx on 03-13-2002 10:41 PM:

What makes us human?

I woke up at four this afternoon. I had been out dancing and drinking, and having a grand old time, but desperately needed the sleep, I suppose. I refused to set my alarm. I drew my curtains shut, and slept for 12 hours.

Sleep does a funny thing to my system. It rejuvinates me in a way that coffee and carbs simply can't. I dreampt, last night, for what seemed forever, about my arm coming out of it's socket. For some reason, nobody could fix it. I woke up with my arm in a bizarre position above my head. I went back to sleep.

I heard the shower (attached to my room) start at about four. This woke me up, and I had my shower in turn as well. I found the coffee pot (it wasn't in the kitchen. Bren and his GF took it into their room.) and was relieved to start it brewing.

I went outside, had a coffee (eventually), cigarette, and read a few pages of Mircroserf. When I was finished with my cup o' Joe and killing myself slowly via niccotine stained lungs, I found a place to bookmark my page. I closed it and sat outside, for a moment, looking at my backyard.

Mud is plentiful today, and the birds fluttering through the puddles for baths -- I suppose they don't mind the mud. The sun is already starting to go down, and it's probably colder than it was a few hours ago. The birds sound as though they're composing something Stravinski would have tried, but failed, to compose. Maybe the birds mastered the art of eloqution.

What does make us human? I start to wonder how I can define our species. It seems to me that we have branched so far from our roots, that instinct is dead. We replace instinct with thought everyday. The complexities in our lives are brought on by ourselves. I have no pity for our species, really. Survival of the fittest seems to have taken on a new meaning, where instinct and reason must go hand in hand. I wonder where we will be in another decade.

__________________

A cubicle is just a padded cell with no door.

Posted by MstrG on 03-13-2002 10:42 PM:

Re: What makes us human?

quote:
Originally posted by Oracular_Jinx
What does make us human?

Self-awareness.

Posted by Smug Git on 03-13-2002 10:47 PM:

Re: Re: What makes us human?

quote:
Originally posted by MstrG

Self-awareness.

That rules a lot of people out then.

__________________

I want to live and I want to love
I want to catch something that I might be ashamed of

Posted by euphorbia on 03-13-2002 10:50 PM:

Re: What makes us human?

quote:
Originally posted by Oracular_Jinx

What does make us human?

the ability to invent makes us different from other animals, water constitutes most of our physical form how ever.

__________________

taste the fucking rainbow & dont touch my junk.

Posted by crazy_wacky on 03-13-2002 11:08 PM:

What makes us human?

"opposable thumbs"

"Monkeys have opposable thumbs, they even have opposable thumbs on their feet"

"yea"

" So, does that make them twice as human?"

"yes, and they are a lot nicer"

__________________

WTF Over?

Posted by nymbus on 03-14-2002 12:48 AM:

Re: What makes us human?

quote:
Originally posted by Oracular_Jinx
What does make us human? I start to wonder how I can define our species. It seems to me that we have branched so far from our roots, that instinct is dead. We replace instinct with thought everyday. The complexities in our lives are brought on by ourselves. I have no pity for our species, really. Survival of the fittest seems to have taken on a new meaning, where instinct and reason must go hand in hand. I wonder where we will be in another decade.

I can't figure out if I agree with the statement that instinct is dead. On the one hand, we follow our instincts in destructive ways. We are conditioned to behave, to feel, to react in certain ways and we follow those conditioned responses by instinct. We need to replace instinct with thought way more than we do. To rationally think about why we react, to understand that we are conditioned, and to change those responses that continuously cause us unhappiness.

On the other, I believe that it is our instinct to be good people, to lead happy and productive lives. In this sense, we do not follow our instincts enough. We bury our instinctual values under layers and layers of bullshit, of social conditioning, of excuses and rationailizations. I'm trying right now to peal back those layers, and find out what I truly value. It's an interesting process, and I have actuallly surprised myself along the way.

I think that it is this ability to contemplate our own lives that makes us human. The ability to choose our own paths. The ability to deny our instincts that sets us apart from other species.

__________________

“No man’s life, liberty or property are safe while the Legislature is in session.” - Judge Gideon J. Tucker, 1866

Posted by Thimbles worth of opinion on 03-14-2002 04:10 AM:

Symbols make us different. Using symbols when communicate and by using communication we think with a group mind.

Ask yourself how many questions you would ask if you never experienced another self. Another human. Never shared a story.

We'd never know about this.

__________________

My nipples are asymetrical... and that's a feature not a bug.

Posted by buddha's penis on 03-14-2002 04:30 AM:

instinct isn't dead. it's self-preservation, passing of genes, pursuit of social status, love of family. pack mentality, pride. self-awareness makes them secondary. or not, as smug pointed out.

Posted by Postmodgirl on 03-14-2002 05:01 AM:

Genetic makeup makes us human.

as far as the rest of it, we can not say what we are because we are what we are...

like

it's like a fish in a glass bowl trying to define the nauture of it's species. It has limited comprehension (and I'm not talking about mental proweress here).

What we say we are is all related to fad and theory. We don't really know what other creatures are (even though we like to think we do). So we can't really define ourselves in the same contex, our perception is too limited.

Like the fish in the glass bowl, we have limited information. About the enviorment in which we live, who we really are, what we really are, and what we can become.

and we will never know.

the universe is too large.

and we are only human after all.

__________________

Well-behaved women rarely make history

Posted by CHiPsJr on 03-14-2002 05:07 AM:

"Man is the animal that laughs."

Posted by philjit on 03-14-2002 06:06 AM:

'The Turing Test'

Posted by WastedPotential on 03-14-2002 07:30 AM:

What makes us human?

Pure and simple: Pants.

We wear them.

__________________

pow.

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