We may as well be ants with a singleminded goal to keep the supply chain intact. Unfortunately in this insanely busy world, where we are driven to increase our productivity, the first thing that suffers is our creative expression. Chimps have somehow missed out on that magical 1% and they are unable to imagine an alternative reality where they rule the world and humans entertain them in zoos. It is a uniquely human quality to imagine what lies beyond our immediate perceptions and postulate theories for may be out there-or imagine ravenous zombies rising from the earth and spawning an apocalypse.
These stories have taught us courage, empathy, and helped make sense of a baffling world. We share stories to understand our world and one another. It is no surprise, then, that myths and legends have been passed down through the generations. Writers spin stories out of a void, creating characters and worlds that exist on paper and flourish in our minds. How do we do this? Through our imagination. Animals use their language to describe objective reality in contrast, humans exist in a “dual reality” consisting of the fictional as well as the objective. We have the unique ability to imagine an alternate reality. Why?Īccording to Harari, humans differ from other animals because we can cooperate in large numbers and with great flexibility. Chimpanzees are our closest relative, sharing 99% of our DNA, and yet we are as different to them as the sun is to the moon.
I recently watched a Ted Talk, by Yuval Noah Harari, What explains the rise of humans, where he explores the basic question about what makes us human. Have you ever wondered what makes us special?
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