On the banality of species

Our anthropocentric mode of thinking runs so deep that we very rarely even notice it. For example, I can’t count the amount of times I’ve been told that humans are special. People list all kinds of things they think that most other animals can’t do, like reflective thinking. But scientists are realising that more and more animals can do a surprising amount of these things. They can also do their own amazing feats, which we barely understand and have no hope of emulating. To take just one example, have you got any idea about the sort of biological electronic warfare array a hammerhead shark is packing in that wing over its nose? Most of us subconsciously think that everything is slowly evolving towards us, and just hasn’t caught up yet. But it’s not that animals can’t have certain levels of attributes because they aren’t as clever or important as us. It’s not that nature somehow ran out of juice and can’t be bothered anymore. <a href="https://medium.com/sustainabile/on-the-banality-of-species-5b5204368538">Read More</a>