Homo Avarus
Or
Homo Conscientius?
Are The Nerds More Human?
I run a
program called Hungryminds to get children to enjoy the struggle of thinking
and trying to figure things out. In my class the kids solve problems,
pretending they were the first ones to attempt the problem at hand – mostly in
math, the sciences or generally critical thinking. In trying to understand what
interests them and motivates them, I asked a group who their heroes were. It
was around the time of the Olympic games in 2008 and most kids had famous athletes
or highly paid sports stars as their heroes and role models. So, I put the
following questions to the class.
“Ever
wondered what would happen if the Olympic Games were open to all species, not
just humans? Would we humans win even a single gold medal? Would we win at
least one of the 20 most popular events?”
As we all went about trying to guess which animal species
would win each of the events, it became clear that we humans would be hard
pressed to win even one gold medal – perhaps archery? We probably would not win
one that did not involve a specialised man-made prop or object. It was obvious
to most that the average dog, cheetah, cat, mouse, squirrel or monkey would
easily outperform the star, specially trained champion human athletes in speed,
strength, agility or stamina. The animals can run faster, jump higher, swim
better, put an acrobat to shame without any special effort, by just being
themselves. Note that we are talking about the _average_ animal here. We are not even comparing our best prepared,
highly trained, specialised humans with ‘champion, specially trained animals.’
We are talking about the average, normal cat or dog or mouse who does not go to
the gym every day, does not train on a special diet or with highly specialized
trainers. Of course, if we were ever to include other species in the Olympics,
then the day would not be far-off when we see animals being trained, doped and
coached beyond their natural ability so that someone could win their sponsors
or owners a lot of profit!
It became clear during the discussion that we associate each
animal species with a special ability that makes it unique. The contest in
which that ability was required would favour that species. The best of that
species would likely win the gold medal in that contest.
Even the name of the species may be derived from its special
ability or the name of the species becomes synonymous with the ability. The
name of the species or the signature characteristics of an animal was often
linked to human traits. For example, we would call someone vulpine (meaning
cunning, crafty or sly as a fox) or slimy, slithering, poisonous (as a snake).
We also say someone is strong as an ox or fearless like a lion. In an extreme
degree of praise or compliment we could actually term a person ‘a lion’! The
word species itself originates from special! What is special about a
species?
Now I put another question to the group.
“What is the most special and unique characteristic of
humans, that we alone excel in and would win gold medals consistently? The
average human would easily beat the best animal hands down in a fair contest?”
It was a humbling experience to look at ourselves, humans as
a species when comparing ourselves with other species at a physical level.
There was a general consensus in the class that we are somehow specialised and
superior at a mental level, so much so that all our other frailties (as
compared to other species) do not matter as much and all animals truly fear
(respect?) us.
While there was some discussion of the ‘soul’ and special ‘divinity’
of the humans, most felt that it was more likely that Man created God in his
own image rather than the other way around. Humans were not inherently more
nicer, caring and sharing of the nature around them as compared to other
species, most of them only took as much as they personally _needed_ (not _wanted_) and mostly left the others alone to survive so long as
they did not directly threaten their own existence. Examples of humans being
kind, generous, self-sacrificing, taking care of their own young and the young
of other species were not unique and there were enough known examples of these in
the animal kingdom. Examples of peaceful, symbiotic co-existence were mostly
not in favour of humans but in favour of every other species.
I put the following questions out to the class.
“So, what is the human species called? Note that it is humans
who have given the names of various species, including the one for themselves.
So, what is the human species called? What does it mean? What do we think of
ourselves?”
“Homo Sapiens!” said a proud, knowledgeable child.
“What does it mean?” I asked.
“The wise one of the hominid kind,” replied the knowledgeable
one.
“So, we think of ourselves as the The Wise Ones? This is the name of the human species. This defines
us as special, as different from all others – we think we are wise ones! Are we
really the wisest of species? Think about it!”
After a round of critical and often brutal
self-assessment as ‘terrible’ human beings – the kids all mostly saw that humans
alone are special in that we go to extraordinary lengths to satisfy our wants, well past our needs! They also picked up on the fact
that while all other animals do sometimes dominate, control and use force
against their own species, there is a clear limit beyond which they do not.
Also, they cannot be as devious and put on a deceptive act, expression or words
as a human can.
“We should be called Homo Greedy!” said one student.
“Homo Avarus,
going by the Latin tradition,” pronounced one student who had quickly Googled
the internet to find the proper Latin nomenclature.
One thing we all agreed on – we humans are truly superior
in our intelligence, not necessarily in morals. Our speciality is mental and
using that we can overcome and make up for all our other weaknesses. We would
always win a competition in math and science over other species.
“I think we humans should be called Homo Conscientius,” I said, making up
the name from Conscientia – Latin for
Knowledge.
As the class was dismissed they all walked out with an
appreciation for what it was to be human, what we are specially equipped to do.
Putting aside our negative human traits and looking at the positives, we were
meant to study math and science. We are being truly human when we do that. At
our most average in math and science we beat the smartest animals hands down!
Hopefully it changed the perspective of kids who thought until then that math
and science were horrible and that it was abnormal to enjoy them! A new respect
developed for nerds in the class, they were more human than the rest!
Copyright (c) Kannan Narayanamurthy 2012
All rights reserved
