being human

What makes us human?

our innate curiosity and our ability to laugh
Newstatesman

every language on earth has a word for "why"

why are we the only species that is concerned about things that don't directly concern our survival, that of our off spring.

Animals don't look up at the sky and wonder what are all the sparkly bits. Animals don't worry about what other animals think of them.

Human curiosity

Why is there something and not nothing?
Laughter makes us human

But why do we laugh

Its the simple things that don't have any answers

What is life? no one knows.

Scientists can't agree on the meaning of the word "meaning'

Where do ideas come from?

What is consciousness?

Where is the last Thursday?

Once you start asking questions you soon turn into a five year old again, you just can't stop. And you become very annoying.

Why do you think the universe is interesting?

Dan Gordon
"Art is what makes us human, and its for everyone"

"Arts is not a luxury they are a right"

"It is as important to be able to sing, Dance, Paint and sculpt as it is to live and breathe. otherwise we just exist as a basis level similar to slugs"

"Making art is how we express and identify who we are as human beings"

"It is not exclusive and that we have to seek it out as well as expect it to come to us"

People had to go somewhere to experience art and now art is coming to us we're building better venues, more festivals in more communities.

Art is becoming a byword for progress.

The traits the make human beings unique.
Many traits once believed to be uniquely human from morality to culture, have been found in the animal kingdom.

so what makes us special?

there are some traits of ours that no other creature on earth can match.

"we are rationale animals" pursuing knowledge for its own sake. We live by art and reasoning. Philosopher Aristotle

Yes we see the roots of many behaviours once considered uniquely human in our closest relatives, chimpanzees and bonobos. but we are the only ones who peer into their world and write a book about it.

Why are we still the only human species still alive today whereas many of our early human ancestors went extinct.

We started with language
like symbols as a way to represent the world around us.
before you say a word your brain first has to have a symbolic representation of what it means. These mental symbols eventually led to language in all its complexity and the ability to process information is the main reason w are the only hominin still alive.

Its not clear when speech evolved, or how, but it seems likely it was partly driven by another uniquely human trait. "our superior social skills".

Children are innate helpers, they act selflessly before social norms set in.

We are unique in the level of abstractness with which we can reason about others mental states.

We tell stories
We dream
We imagine

We spend a great deal of time thinking about the future and analysing the past.