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Question: What are humans really!?
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We can potentially be very intelligent but also very primitive beings!. Humans are normally raised in humanly societies; we are surrounded by our own since birth, learn to speak a native language, develop deep intricate thoughts as we mature into adulthood!. We call this human, this is what we are!.

However, given a new scenario!.!.!. If an infant is left in the wild and is miraculously raised by its inhabitants i!.e!. wolves or other beasts, considering these accounts to be true which in some cases are, then the human infant seems to lose most or all of its humanly bonds and develops a distinguishably different mentality and way of living!. It thinks itself as one of those who raised it (i!.e!. wolves)!.

On the contrary, if humans nurtured an infant animal and released it back into the wild after maturity it doesn't lose any of its wild animal instincts!. Sure, it might take a short period for it to adapt but eventually it would!. As for an infant child!.!.!. that's a whole different story!.!.!.

It baffles me, we have evolved to be such intelligent beings; truly, masters of our own and yet we fall so easily!.

Ponder this thought with me if you will:
All the infants of the world survives a mass extinction that left all but them and some animals alive!. The animals raise them as their own!. When they have matured, what do they become!? Do we still consider them human!? or animal!?

What is human!?Www@QuestionHome@Com


Best Answer - Chosen by Asker:
What you're talking about has nothing to do with the evolution of a species, rather you are talking about culture and civilization!. The children posited in one of your last paragraphs would likely find their way to one another eventually and begin forming social groups much like those which died off!. We think in symbols - probably the only species on the planet who relies upon symbology for virtually all of its thought processes!. This trait itself is not cultural - individual languages and symbolic systems are cultural, but the tendancy to think in symbols and communicate via language is hard-wired into our brains!. The only way the surviving children wouldn't eventually come together and form new societies and civilizations is if the event that killed the adults also somehow damaged certain key areas of the survivor's brains!.

Human is the ability to think in symbols, and to run internal simulations of various situations as we decide upon our next course of action!. Human is the ability to put one's self mentally into the perspective of someone or something else - aka "empathy"!.

mho, anywho!. :-)Www@QuestionHome@Com

I personally believe that we are something else inside of a human body!. We can travel outside of it and we are interconnected to everything else!. Why we are experiencing this human form I don't know!. Our consciousness is very flexible, as shown in the case of children thinking like wolves!. Science has suggested that there are multiple dimensions and I believe that our consciousness can transcend this dimension!.Www@QuestionHome@Com

There is a story of a four year old boy named george who was found in the jungles of africa living with monkeys he was a wild child but after careful nurturing he was able to socialize with humans so i will say that beneath it all as long as we look like humans no matter how we were raised we are humansWww@QuestionHome@Com

for some self centered reason we place ourselves above all other creatures on the planet!. when you get right down to it i think we are parasites!. we destroy our own environment just as a parasite does!.Www@QuestionHome@Com

That is because evolution is not fact but fiction!.Www@QuestionHome@Com

No I believe that in the same manner a human can adapt, there is a progressive path designed to meet our own potential and well being!. I don't believe we completely live in that perfect scenario, but it is better in our circumstances than it would be in a stripped "animalistic" perspective!. Only in a lifestyle resembling our own would there be any hope to find breakthroughs that simultaneously produce longevity, the preservation of knowledge, and above all else the priority of preserving our species firstly over other animal life!.

So from that point of view when asking "What is human!?" I would have to define humanity as a lifestyle which favorably serves the best interests of homo sapiens and their potential!.

So although our modern lifestyles might not be necessary for our survival; it has derived from thousands of years of optimal adaption and preservation!. For these reasons we call it humanWww@QuestionHome@Com