What's one thing unique to human beings that no animal shares with us?

A normally developed human can unravel and understand something like “Sheila told me her father’s brother’s son’s friend heard from his girlfriend’s daughter that she was there.”

You can map that out and understand the relationships and know who “was there”.

Animals we’ve tested, including chimps and gorillas and corvids, get stuck at two indirect references at most, not in language but in tests to see if they can find rewards.

A second unique thing human beings have, perhaps related to understanding unlimited chains of indirect reference, is an ability to plan ahead for days, weeks, and months. Animals we have tested seem incapable of processing experience and planning ahead, even when the behavior is demonstrated for them.

Every day is “today” with no tomorrow; they can’t expend energy today for a reward tomorrow, or even a week from now. They can’t think ahead. Tests have been devised for chimps, so they could earn delicious fruity rewards they love, if they could only think a few hours ahead. Kind of like if you put a coin in this vending machine now, it will give you fruit 3 hours from now. Nope. They can’t get it. Five minutes, they can get that. But they can’t mentally connect something from hours ago to what is happening now, no matter how many times that happens.

Our civilization depends upon thinking ahead, sacrificing work and time to achieve imagined goals well into the future. We do that naturally, without thinking about it. Based on what we know so far, other animals seem incapable of doing that intentionally, any long term projects they have (like building a nest or digging a burrow) seem instinctual; nothing novel is done by animals that would indicate consciously planning ahead more than a day.

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