Nitro the Guru said:
We use our brains to advance. With our brains comes technology. With technology comes advanced weapons, so on and so forth.
And these advances are currently leading us down the path of self-destruction. Although we may think we are superior based on our technology and manipulation of our environment relative to that of other life forms on the planet, what about from an objective standpoint? Say that some Aliens have been watching life evolve on the planet. Do you think they would believe that we, the species that eradicated themselves, are the most intelligent species? I think although we may be more intelligent in terms of the factors listed earlier, when you include the variable that we are destroying ourselves to the equation, it significantly reduces how intelligent we may be.
Stealth said:
Humans are smart...true. Much smarter than any other animal. But our decisions are not wise, and eventually we are going to kill ourselves. So at this point in time, YES we are SUPERIOR to everything else. But if you look at it in the long run, 200 years from now we're all gonna be suffering from our own hand, and we will not always be the superior race.
So maybe humans will be the most evolved/advanced species during the year 2006. But maybe not in history. While you say we have technology that advances us, I say we have technology that will bring about the destruction of the world. Just because I can shoot a lion coming at me and drive away doesnt mean I'm superior, but because eventually like a locust my species is going to bring about the apocalypse.
This is right on IMO. It reminds me of two quotes that I have always found very insightful...
""I know not with what weapons World War III will be fought, but World War IV will be fought with sticks and stones."
Einstein
" I'd like to share a revelation that I've had during my time here. It came to me when I tried to classify your species. I realized that you're not actually mammals. Every mammal on this planet instinctively develops a natural equilibrium with the surrounding environment, but you humans do not. You move to an area, and you multiply, and multiply, until every natural resource is consumed. The only way you can survive is to spread to another area. There is another organism on this planet that follows the same pattern. A virus. Human beings are a disease, a cancer of this planet, you are a plague"
Agent Smith from the Matrix
As far as human's being animals I would not hesitate to say that we are definitely animals. Even though I have just pointed out our inherent stupidity that is leading us towards the destruction of ourselves, I would still argue that we are the most intelligent life form on the planet. I say this because if there was another species that was even as remotely intelligent as we are, they would have found some way to alert us of or stop us from the destruction we are creating. That has not happened to my knowledge, and that leads me to believe that there is no other life form on this planet with enough intelligence to comprehend what humans are doing. Therefore we are animals, but we are definitely by far the most intelligent animal as well.