Quote:
Originally Posted by Jason
Humans are specialists - we specialize in intelligence and tool use. No other life form we know about can come close to matching us in those two arenas.
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I think it would be better to say that particular speciality developed from utilitarian bodies being not much good at any one other thing and the need to survive given what we had.
We started off with two basic features - Hands that which at first were probably not very dexterous but which with the right controlling software had the potential to do delicate things. A Brain with a powerful memory compared to most other mammals, the basic brain configuration was something our ape ancestors needed in the complex social groups along with the need to remember the locations of diverse food sources.
All that then happened was for that animal to be placed under some environmental stress that forced it to break out of established instinctive behaviour and start doing things differently. From then on the feed-back loop between brain and hands became an increasingly powerful combination. We were not specialist tool users by design we simply became so through necessity and our bodies which were unspecialised for other things simply had the right potential to go in that direction.
As to the earlier post about humans having very good bodies! It depends how you look at it. In one sense we do. We are capable of doing just about what every other animal can do except fly. We have a good sense of balance (how many animals can balance for any length of time on one limb). When we fall over we can somersault and right ourselves very quickly (another useful ape legacy. Our upright posture enables us to turn on the spot in tight places and if needed face any threat quickly. In many respects the very instability we have through being an upright biped is something we have drawn on by developing good balance ability. However that said when it comes to climbing things we do not compare to Orangutans our running speed is fairly pathetic compared any other ground living mammal, though our running endurance is fairly good we can run for longer without over-heating than any mammal that does not sweat. We can dive and swim better than most land animals but do not even remotely compare with seals. In many respects we can do remarkable things given the body form we have but we are still a utility animal - If Tigers are the tanks of the animal world and Cows are the buses then the human being is a sort of amphibious Jeep.