Humans, give youself a pat on the back

Think about all of the events that have taken place for you to be reading this article right now. This article was written in Canada, yet the entire world of humans can potentially be reading it instantly after it has been posted on the Internet. You may be saying well what's the big deal, this sort of stuff happens all the time. However, it is important to recognize the marvel that is the Internet, one of the uncountable innovations that humans have created. Surely if the baboons had beat us to developing the Internet and we saw them being able to do the things we could do, we would be amazed.

In this world that we share, there are millions of species out there. It is fair to say, that each species has its own inherent advantages. Humans can not breathe underwater like a fish, nor fly like a bird, or outrun a giraffe (despite those Man vs Beast specials on Fox). Fortunately, the advantage that we humans have been given is limitless. We have been given intelligence.

With our intelligence, we are able to invent way to mimic other species. We have invented scuba gear to swim with the fishes, airplanes to fly with the birds, and cars to speed by giraffes (possibly an idea for Man vs Beast 2). We know more about the world than any other species and know more about ourselves as well. On top of that, we even know more about other species than those species themselves. We are so dominant that we have even learned to train them as pets. Hell, we've even created species of our own. If God created all of the animals, we've succeeded so much as a species that we're threatening to replicate our creator. How many issues are there out there where humans are supposedly “playing God”?

If we go with the angle that God created us, obviously he would foresee our great intelligence and limit it somehow. That is why we have language. In the story of the Tower of Babel, humans believed that they could uild a tower into the sky to build their supremacy. To prevent this God made all of the people learn different languages so that they could not work together. Imagine today a man from New Delhi working on a project with a woman from Compton. Aside from the obvious language barrier, there are too many differences whereas if it were two elephants from those parts, they could still communicate with each other. Therefore, we have wasted our potential. Imagine what could be possible if 6 billion of the smartest species on Earth worked together. The cure for cancer would be solved by lunchtime. Some people have realized this and are working on developing a universal language.

Humans have their faults as well. No other species kill each other at the rate that we do, especially when it is not for survival. If we saw World War Two played out with bears instead, it would be the most absurd, horrific sight of life. A group of black bears begin to round up all of the polar bears they can find and begin systematically killing them. Soon most of bears of the world intervene and fight each other on the ground, in the air, and at sea. Animal Farm has nothing on this tale.

Nevertheless, the purpose of this article is just to remind yourself how awesome humans are. We have made the greatest impact on this world (not necessarily a good impact) and now control the fate of it. Not bad for a relatively young species that has only been around for 200,000 years.