Hacker News new | ask | show | jobs
by 0xBABAD00C 1874 days ago
> there are some traits that distinctly separates humans from other animals

There clearly are distinct characteristics of what it means to be human, as opposed to not just other animals, but other hominin species as well. For instance, the mutation in prefrontal cortex development that allowed us to acquire a complete recursive language (a Turing-complete communication system), along with all of its benefits for large-scale coordination and strategy. This mutation is likely 70k year old and has caused a cascade of civilizational advances, from complex culture, to myths, to arts, etc.

https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/166520v9.full