Humans are special, not better

Danilo Anton

Max Planck, the famous German scientist and Nobel laureate, once said:

“A new scientific truth does not triumph convincing its opponents, but rather due to the natural death of the older generation, it is replaced by a new one that has become familiar with the new theory or belief.”.

The technological-industrial paradigm of today’s world is no exception. After three centuries it is destined to succumb under the weight of its own contradictions.

Its domain has caused unprecedented destruction of terrestrial and marine ecosystems, and has developed several generations of disoriented women and men lacking roots or references.

The human species is not larger, or more capable, even more complex than the others that make up the planet. Nor it is very different.  Humans shares with other animals and plants much of their genetic code, and have evolved to what they are presently through a pattern similar to many other animals.

The starting point for an analysis of our species should be understanding that we are not “superior” to any other.

We are not the top of natural evolution, far from it.

We can certainly say that, in a sense, we are “special”, but so are dolphins, palm trees or flatworms.

Each of these organisms live their lives, develops their own metabolism with the resources at their disposal, and do their best to survive through their descendants.

The “special”, and not better, human traits, are the result of an old history.

About 5 or 6 million years ago, some ancient primates, probably pf arboreal origin, evolved, became bipedal, lost their body fur, developed a large brain and created sophisticated cultures based on the generation and interpretation of symbols. 

To produce these super-brained culture, they managed to prolong the infant stage of their offspring. Human babies take a long time to grow. For several years, they remain very vulnerable, totally unable to defend themselves. This children’s stage is the longest among all known mammals.

The end result this long period of human growth during childhood is an adult who is not really very different from adults of other species. Females and males carry out the normal physiological functions of the species, feed and metabolize plant and animal tissues, breathe oxygen from the air, put great efforts to protect their children, and finally they die and degrade like other plants and animals.

Reproduced from "Peoples, Drugs and Serpents", Danilo Anton, 2016, Piriguazú Ediciones.