What make humans distinct

what’s the one major aspect

of human biology that sets us apart from

all other life on this earth is it

our arms our legs our voices

no it’s our brains these very brains

which give us an otherworldly superpower

an ability so complex that has caused an

atrophy

of our muscles a skill so

unbelievably powerful that it took us

millennia

to fully master this power

is our ability to gossip

and thus more broadly our understanding

of fictive language

a skill which sets us apart from all

other life on this earth

so what is fictive language also known

as the gossip theory

it’s a singularly human trait which

allows us the uncanny ability

to believe in the unseen

if i were to tell you right now to close

your eyes

and picture a pink elephant go on give

it a try

you’d be able to do so quite readily in

fact

we can clearly see how homo sapien

cognitive linguistic ability

has evolved to such a degree that it

gives us an immense

competitive advantage large-scale

organization and strategizing

capabilities

orchestrated largely through religion a

sociological concept

entirely unique to humanity

and if you want proof of this 84 percent

of the modern day world population

affiliates themselves with

and therefore is organized by a religion

and what is religion believing

in the unseen a clear display of our

unique ability

this cognitive revolution gave way

to potentially one of the first crimes

of our kind

a crime sprouted from invisible

differences

made tangible through the notion of

fiction

this crime was the genocide of

all other human species

through the unification of homo sapiens

under a common power

namely archaic forms of religion sapient

hierarchy evolved constructing

an empire spanning the entirety of

africa

this was bolstered by trade a construct

a construct

again only able to exist due to the

fictive notion of trust

held between sapien populations

the incessant imperialism of homo sapien

society

catalyzed the extinction of all other

human species

as they were quickly slaughtered and

deprived of all resources

this was the world’s first ethnic

cleansing

a concept alien to all other life on

earth

and it wasn’t the last to this day we

continue to destroy each other

due to our differences a notion unique

to humanity having obtained a cognitive

based sociological hierarchy

humanity began to spread out of africa

and as you may have guessed devastation

ensued

a prime example of this is the

extinction of the australian

and american megafauna thousands of

years ago

i would like you all to once more

exercise your abilities effective

thinking

close your eyes and imagine six meter

ground sloths

ten ton armadillos and rodents the size

of bears

imagine saber-toothed cats oversized

lions

and mammoths what do all of these

species have in common

it’s not the fact that they’re mammals

it’s that they were all

driven to extinction by homo sapiens

and these are mere examples in the

americas alone

humanity wiped out 84 of the 107 genera

of large mammals never

before had a species been so adaptable

never before had a species being so

ruthless and never before

had a species been so distinct from the

world around us

and we may try and distance ourselves

from the abhorrent actions of our

ancestors

but the futility of doing so is almost

laughable

modern-day humans are treading the exact

same trail

we are cut from the same cloth

we are the same breed of we are the same

breed of monster

in the last decade alone the

disappearance of 160

species has been declared by the iucn

this repetition of history is simply

shameful

and it’s often the case that if a

species is not seen as useful to

humanity

it is wiped out leaving only farmyard

animals

that serve as galley slaves in noah’s

ark

in the words of yuval no harari

if change does not occur the

biodiversity which we cherish

so deeply will surely diminish

forcing sharks dolphins and tigers

to join the ground sloths mammoths and

sabretooth cats

in earth’s memory humanity

is alone in its biology alone

in its sociology and alone in its

actions

and these factors provide evidence to

believe

that humanity is truly distinct

from the world around us thank you