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