3 things that definitively separate human from animal intelligence:

1 - domestication of fire
2- written history
3 - interstellar spacecraft

 4 Convulsive Events in Human History:

1 - Domestication of Fire
2 - Development of Agriculture
3 - Movable Type Printing
4 - The Internet

 2012 03 03

That many, if not all, animals display consciousness is incontrovertible; that they make decisions is obvious. But Is it possible for a chimp or a dog or a parrot or an elephant to make a behavioral decision based upon an ethical or moral consideration?

 2012 09 25

Evolutionary Conundrum: Since women require 9 months to bear a child while men require only a few seconds to father one, how did the human psychology evolve that results in the slaughter of infant females? If the evolutionary goal is the unchecked replication of genetic material this action would appear to be counter-productive.

Corollary conundrum: Again, if unchecked replication is the dynamic, how did monogamy, both in humans and a few animal species, evolve?

 2012 06 25

The necessity to achieve sexual fulfillment is a biological imperative that is the means by which all evolutionary progress has taken place on this planet. The drive is universal among all species above the microbial level but is most observable and chronicled in the higher primates, especially humans., When perceived through the lens of this sexual imperative much of human behavior that would otherwise seem to be inexplicable, bizarre and incomprehensible becomes accessibly understandable.

It has long been observed that among the higher primates males are for more promiscuous than females.

People such as John Edwards and Arnold Swarzenegger (and of course millions more who aren't anywhere near as visible and thus fascinating) swear sanctified vows of allegiance to a specific spouse but later find themselves unable to escape this compelling sexual necessity to spread their seed further afield.

Why would this be so?

The answer can be found in rather straight-forward biology: the human male can produce many times more offspring than can the female who must sustain months of gestation to produce, typically, a single child. On every day after that female has been impregnated the male can further impregnate one, two even three more females. Typically, the sexual fulfillment attendant to the initial impregnation event suffices so that most males don't in fact go about seeking multiple partners in a single day. However, the biological imperative to replicate and disseminate more and more genetic material, (i.e., offspring) overcomes any social contract or moral injunction. By this process is evolution moved forward since each new birth provides a further platform for mutations, some of which will inevitably result in enhanced survivability features.


Thus we find that the phenomenon of the desire for sexual fulfillment is a prime ingredient in the process of evolution and in turn an increase the overall intellectual, emotional and psychological sophistication of not only the human species but all forms of life that occupy this planet.

 TERMS OF LIFE

autotrophs
heterotrophs
saprotrophs
diatoms
plankton
zooplankton
dinoflagellates
protists
green algae, ...
krill
biomass
primary producers
photosynthesis
chlorophyll
oxides
sulfides
hydrogen sulfide
carbon
non-living organic compound
carbon dioxide
nekton and opposite of nekton
telemeosis
what eats bacteria
what eats archaea
microorganism
inorganic microorganism
ATP
DNA