Why are we rare and not special at the same time?
Updated: Jan 24, 2020
Life as we know it is special. But amongst 8.7 million species that exist in the world today, only one type of species can read this line and make sense of it. From being apes to nomads, cavemen to fire forgers, and finally, to civilization starters, the evolutionary history of humans is probably the most interesting one to read about. Our skills are unparalleled in the animal kingdom, and this surely makes us one of a kind. But does it really?
The things that we do makes us who we are. But from a less moral standpoint, the things that make us up are chemical ingredients that are found all around us. Neil DeGrasse Tyson describes this as one of his deep cosmic thoughts[1]. He says that it is hubristic to deem ourselves noteworthy in a universe we barely understand.
Our chemical composition
The first element to form after the big bang was hydrogen, and thus, it occupies the first spot on the periodic table. It is followed by Helium, an inert gas that hardly reacts with other elements, then comes oxygen, an element that sustains life, then carbon, which is unique in its reactive properties, and not further down the line shows up nitrogen, an important element in its regards. This compositional order is of significance as we delve deep into the human composition. Biology tells us that we are primarily made up of water, which in turn is made up of hydrogen and oxygen, the first and the third most abundant elements in our universe. 18 % of our body is carbon[2], and 3 % is nitrogen, which follows the same compositional order of the cosmos.
Things become more intriguing as we take this comparison to a higher level of understanding. There is a reason why carbon is called the king of elements[3] in the field of chemistry. The fact that there is a whole field of chemistry dedicated to carbon and its compounds makes the point evident enough! Moreover, nucleic acids, proteins, carbohydrates; all molecules which are essential to forming complex life is carbon-based, making carbon, the essence of life.
When we look at the biochemistry of all the species on the planet, we find complex organic molecules that are no different from ours. All living organisms store genetic information using DNA and RNA, which are amino acids chiefly based on carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, and nitrogen; the most common elements in the universe. And because there are more stars than there are grains of sands on the beaches of earth and the fact that the chemical ingredients required for complex life are not rare, there could possibly be life somewhere in the vastness of the universe, perhaps civilizations which are far more advanced and intelligent than us, which easily renders our specialty obsolete!
The composition of our brain
But what if we look at this rarity from another perspective, namely, the part where all our social traits and intelligence come from. In the book, The Human Advantage: A New Understanding of How Our Brain Became Remarkable, Suzana Herculano-Houzel[4], a neuroscientist, describes the 'specialty' of the human brain.
A brain with more neurons requires more energy to run, and this energy is often met through the consumption of food. The average human brain with 86 billion neurons[5], is not the highest neuron count observed in the animal kingdom, but it has more neurons in the cerebral cortex than any other brains.
According to Suzana, our brains can only be maintained if we eat 9 hours a day, and this is indeed not the case. Though we share a similar brain with all primates, humans perform one thing that chimps and gorillas don’t. We cook our food. In an article on PLOS[6], she discusses how this specific detail in calorie intake makes all the difference. Cooking food makes the process of digestion and the absorption of energy from these foods much easier and efficient. And this allows the brain to have more neurons, especially in the cerebral cortex, which in turn means more cognition.
One of the greatest puzzles
Evolution made us different, and we are indeed made up of cosmic stuff. But no answer about this supposed rarity of human species would be complete without indulging into one of the greatest puzzles of all-time, the consciousness. Consciousness has been confounding the very best of philosophers and neuroscientists for a very long time now, and yet our level of understanding in the subject is a narrow slice of a seemingly complexly-woven concept. Opening this new can of worms might actually be enough to understand our place in the universe. But what exactly is our consciousness?
There are many answers to this question, and yet when you read them, each one of them would feel like it is missing something. But the underlying idea behind every explanation seems to strive toward what we call self-awareness. Loosely speaking, being aware means being conscious. While self-awareness explicitly is a part of consciousness, it does not work without the sensory organs. Sometimes consciousness is considered as a feedback loop, with an input and an output. This inputted information is put in a sort of categorized library, which is then used as the output to express information in different forms when called upon.
But where does this mysterious ability come from? The anatomical diagram of the brain does not have an arrow that points to consciousness. There is no physical thing inside the brain that a surgeon can touch or see called consciousness. Yet, this uncanny awareness lingers when you are awake, and works in unison with the sensory organs to tell the sun apart from the moon. But is there any evidence that suggests that consciousness lies in the brain? It turns out there is. While this is not unequivocal amongst the masses, neuroscientists have witnessed parts of the brain light up under MRI scans, when subject brains are being ‘consciously aware’ of a stimulus. Such studies see consciousness as something which is completely delocalized in the brain, a system created by a collection of neurons that fires in tandem with one another.
The truth is that we don't know what it is, and, likely, the answer to it will always be two steps ahead when we think we are one step closer. There are endless theories that perceive the question from different angles. While some propose that consciousness is an inevitable part of evolution and natural selection, others get 'creative' with it. More on that later. But as mentioned in the previous paragraphs, it could be the act of forging fire and eating cooked food, which led to more neurons in the cerebral cortex, that may have spurred consciousness.
Neil DeGrasse Tyson's 'disturbing' thought
So, we are rare in the sense that evolution may have made our brains distinctly different from others through our conscious acts such as cooking. But there is a limit to this over-rated achievement that a philosophical side of the brain contemplates. What if we are not alone in this universe? If that question is out there, why not another one. What if we are living in a simulation? Though these are philosophical questions that keeps the best of humans awake at night, they have strange implications that fits into this ‘specialty’ of ours.
In a talk held at St. Petersburg college in 2009, Neil DeGrasse Tyson expressed one of his disturbing thoughts[7] that makes us rethink our place in the universe. He says that chimps, when compared to a lot of other animals on earth, are smart, but they can’t do math problems and contemplate philosophies the way we do. The best of their cognition can be matched by human babies whose brains are not even barely developed. Then he goes on to say that though this is the case, our genetics only differ from our ancestral apes only by a small margin, a mere 1-2 % difference in DNA is what allows us to boast ourselves as special creatures. But since the ingredients for life is common in the universe, he imagines a life form that has the same degree of variance in genetics down the same scale used to differentiate between us and chimps. Maybe that small degree of difference might be enough to make our intelligence and cognition look puny and unimportant in the cosmos.
The simulation argument
The simulation argument[8] put forward by Nick Bostrom stirs the pot even further. We already have technology that helps us build simulated worlds within our world. Things like virtual reality and augmented reality were not part of our world if we look back to ten or fifteen years. But now, technology will only get better the way it is growing. And this is where the simulation argument takes full effect. If such things are possible in our future with the advancement in technology, then how can we be sure that we are not part of a simulated world already?
No matter how philosophical the question may seem, Nick Bostrom’s paper keeps one awake at night. Are we part of a computer simulation carried out by posthumans—beings with unlimited resources and computing power in their hands? The argument triggers a deep existential crisis, and if you want to learn more about the simulation argument, this video[9] from kurzgesagt is recommended.
But where does that leave us?
It leaves us on a 'pale blue dot' floating around through the silence of vacuum. But we float together in this journey, from the very smallest bacterium to the largest blue whale, we are deeply connected through a shared experience called life. We are made from the remnants of mighty stars somewhere out there in the cosmos. But this composition does not apply just to us—all life shares this stellar gift equally.
And this may not make us unique amidst other organisms, but perhaps we don’t have to be unique that way. The fact that a part of the universe resides in all of us itself is enough to think greatly of ourselves and respect everything around for what it is. But if you were in desperate need of a better answer, then maybe it’s our level of understanding of this very thing that separates us from the rest! The fact that we can contemplate even the smallest fraction of this extraordinary universe!
Know more about sources
1. St. Petersburg college, YouTube. (2009, May 7). Neil Degrasse Tyson. In Cosmic Quandaries, held at The Palladium in St. Petersburg at 7 p.m. on Wednesday, March 26th. Retrieved 14:05, September 7, 2019 from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CAD25s53wmE&feature=related
2. Wikipedia contributors. (2019, September 6). Composition of the human body. In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 13:50, September 7, 2019, from https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php title=Composition_of_the_human_body&oldid=914340376
3. Wikipedia contributors. (2019, August 29). Carbon. In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 17:51, September 7, 2019, from https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Carbon&oldid=913079313
4. Wikipedia contributors. (2019, June 5). Suzana Herculano-Houzel. In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 18:31, September 7, 2019, from https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Suzana_Herculano-Houzel&oldid=900399690
5. TED, YouTube. (2013, Nov 26). What is so special about the human brain? | Suzana Herculano-Houzel. Retrieved 14:36, September 7, 2019, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_7_XH1CBzGw&t=1s
6. Herculano-Houzel S (2011) Scaling of Brain Metabolism with a Fixed Energy Budget per Neuron: Implications for Neuronal Activity, Plasticity and Evolution. PLoS ONE 6(3): e17514. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0017514. licensed under Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license © 2011 Suzana Herculano-Houzel...summarized excerpt.
7. St. Petersburg college, YouTube. (2009, May 7). Neil Degrasse Tyson. In Cosmic Quandaries, held at The Palladium in St. Petersburg at 7 p.m. on Wednesday, March 26th. Retrieved 14:05, September 7, 2019 from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CAD25s53wmE&feature=related
8. Nick Bostrom. (2003) The simulation argument. Published in Philosophical Quarterly (2003) Vol. 53, No. 211, pp. 243-255. Retrieved 14:18, September 7, 2019 from https://www.simulation-argument.com...summarized excerpt.
9. kurzgesagt, YouTube. (2017, Sep 21). Is Reality Real? The Simulation Argument. Retrieved 14:22, September 7, 2019 from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tlTKTTt47WE&t=402s
Image sources:
cover image: https://unsplash.com/@aronvisuals Brain drawing: https://www.rawpixel.com/ consciousness: https://unsplash.com/@averey matrix: https://unsplash.com/@markusspiske
Comments