On Wed, 30 Apr 1997, Mike Sheehan, The Everett Citizen wrote:

> In a message dated 97-04-29 14:31:24 EDT, you write:
>
> << First, I feel that homo sapiens is the only species on earth whose
>  ability to live is primarily conceptual rather than genetic. By this
>  I mean that human adaptive systems are learned rather than
>  genetically stored. This gives an enormous amount of adaptive
>  flexibility to this particular species. A deer must grow a coat of
>  fur for protection vs the cold; the human can learn to make a coat,
>  to make a house, to make fire. An animal will die if its food (green
>  herbiage in this instance) are not available; the human can move to
>  another area (let's say, to a rainforest - where that deer's hooves
>  would never survive the moisture) - and above all, the human can
>  develop artifacts, technology - to change their interactions with the
>  envt and so create food. >>
>
> A hermit crab dons an artificial coat made from another animal.  Swifts and
> other birds build incredible and unduplicable houses.  Great herds of grazing
> animals migrate to find food.  Chimpanzees learn to make and use tools
> (termite rods) and teach their children the art.  I think we can get caught
> up in our self important arrogance and ignore the fact that we are animals
> and nothing more.  We can conceive of this idea (that we are animals and
> nothing more), and maybe THAT is the only thing that separates us from other
> animals.  We can recognize that we are animals and make choices based on our
> intellect instead of our instincts.  But even that (our intellect) is
> inherited genetically!
>
I think our distinctiveness is due to our unmatched ability to
share (communicate) complex thought processes with each other.

Harry