[skadamou]

There is some thought that social animals that live past their breeding age still play a role in passing on their genes by increasing the fitness of their relations. For example, by helping your sibling's offspring pass on their genes, you are effectively helping pass on roughly 25% of your genes. I don't totally know where I read this but I'm pretty sure it's in selfish gene by Richard Dawkins.

[mullingitover]

This is pretty rare in nature, however. There are very few species that live past reproductive age, I think humans and cetaceans are the only ones who do it.

[rbanffy]

"Man had always assumed that he was more intelligent than dolphins because he had achieved so much — the wheel, New York, wars and so on — whilst all the dolphins had ever done was muck about in the water having a good time. But conversely, the dolphins had always believed that they were far more intelligent than man—for precisely the same reasons". — Douglas Adams

[oblak]

Makes a ton of sense, doesn't it. We're attributing our preferences - biological, cultural, etc. - to the good stuff, then later on "discover", piece by piece, that we're not that special. I know many truly intelligent people who do feel humans are special and it's been blowing my mind for decades