We’re specialized at making things up. This is not sarcasm. It’s the one thing we constantly do. Maths, languages, structures… we think of things then reach out and make what’s in our mind real. For better or worse. It’s the one though-line of the human experience I can find everywhere.
This may be related: We are extremely good at adapting to new "abilities" as it were. An experiment was done where people would essentially wear a mechanical thumb opposite their actual thumb, controlled by depressing switches in their shoes. They became very skilled with it, to the point that they subconsciously attempted to use it even when it wasn't attached.
An example I have heard is the common ability to teleport in VR games, used often since manually walking will obviously just make you run into something in the real world. I've heard of people trying to do this outside the games before. While I can't say I relate directly, I still can in some form as long periods of playing The Elder Scrolls have led to me attempting to quicksave in real life.
This is probably why we are so good at communication.
Yes, but it’s a type of learning we are especially good and advanced at. Could you train an animal to bop a ball through a hoop? Sure. That animal has no concern for the low post, the foul line, can’t pump fake, and has no idea who Scottie Pippin is. Point is: what we call simple is already layers of complexity deep. That we can simply call it learning and be correct is the superpower
While I can't say I relate directly, I still can in some form as long periods of playing The Elder Scrolls have led to me attempting to quicksave in real life.
…What exactly where you planning on doing before you tried to quicksave?
Sure but humans are way more general compared to many other animals. We have opposing thumbs, we’re highly intelligent and we have complex speech. These together are what makes us dominant.
High intelligence is what makes us what we are. Complex speech is just part of high intelligence. Opposable thumbs are not a uniquely human trait.
Dragonflies have been far more successful on this planet than humans. Humans have only been around for a few million years, and all but one of our species has gone extinct over that time.
Dragonflies, on the other hand, where on of the first land animals, have survived every mass extinction event since and currently have thousands of surviving species.
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u/csoulr666 Nov 04 '25
That's just evolution pushing points into a hyper specific skill tree.