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Girish Bhamre

Govt of India

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Which is the most special ability present within humans?

my take is on our ability to adapt. what does your experience say about it?

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  • Victor Valentour

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    Apr 23 2012: The ability to imagine. Right now if I told you to imagine a bright red bird flying across your computer monitorout of view and then reappearing, making it's way out of the screen to stand errect and walk around on what ever flat surface is before you; you would be able to do so. There is no other lifeform on Earth that, scientifically, has been proven to be able to access the prefrontal cortex to do what you just did.

    • vince vernile

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      Apr 24 2012: I agree, our capacity for imagination makes us a unique species.
      Not to bring religion into it, but "being created in God's image" could refer to our capacity to 'see' what is not there, and experience it in our minds.( And I'm not religious.)

      • Victor Valentour

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        Apr 30 2012: I don't know for sure... however the basis for me and relgion is this:

        We do not know as of yet how chemicals can combine and create a life... The spark of life is as of yet unreplicated, and what consitutes it is still unknown.
        So your guess is as good as mine, however scientific evidence does point to a part of the brain that human beings have that allow them to imagine.
        But back to religion , it doesn't matter if you are or are not religious. The belifes that people have shape they way they exprence and understand life, not what they observe.
        I am pagan and i am very relgious, and openminded about diffrent ideas, however science trumps folk lore and relgion... But there are still questions science cannot answer such as how can a few chemicals create a living cell and that cell instincitvely know (menaing it has knowledge) how to create any life.
        That still is a mystery. ;)
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      Sander de Koning

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      Apr 26 2012: I don't think imagination is reserved for the human species. We have an exceptionally large imagination, but we aren't the only ones.

      Great apes can learn sign language and make up new signs or express ideas they haven't been taught. They're also able to use tools, as are elephants and some monkeys and birds. Singing birds make new songs to beat their rivals, and even non-singing birds seen to communicate. Apes and elephants can pass the mirror test, which means recognizing themselves in a mirror. Even octopuses and squid can solve problems after thinking about it. I think these things require a measure of imagination, especially using tools and improvising on sign language.

      What really seems to be unique to us humans are imagining counterfactual thoughts. Thinking things that aren't true given the knowledge you have. A "what if" question that goes against observable reality.

      • Victor Valentour

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        Apr 30 2012: There is a single part of our nuerobiology (brain) that only human beings have that controls our ability to imagine and the expanded frontal cortex that also has to do with imagination and higher procesings that we (human beings) only have... What you are talking about seems to be animals and their adaptation to diffrent situations.
        "The ability to think things that aren't true is the ability to imagine a realtiy that doesn't exist... "
        your simply just restating what i said there..... : |

        the ability to think has been observed in animals. We are not the only thing that has an affinity for cognition. That is a well established fact. I didn't say think, i said imagine.

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