[Art]

You mean: Shape, Color, Pattern? (no mention of size).

[unreality]

It depends how detailed of a definition you want, but if that title had to be just two words it would be emotions & ego. The human ego is the largest object in the known universe. Here's an emotion for you, 

[Don Patrick]

As this is a philosophical question, I will wax philosophically as an answer.
On a table are four items: A red ball, a blue cube, a striped ball, and a red cube with stripes. What defines the latter?

Do you mean what defines the latter among the 3 previous items ?

Yes. The items are an analogy for humans and other animals. What distinguishes the one from the other? What makes it unique?

[Thierry]

As this is a philosophical question, I will wax philosophically as an answer.
On a table are four items: A red ball, a blue cube, a striped ball, and a red cube with stripes. What defines the latter?

Do you mean what defines the latter among the 3 previous items ?

Yes. The items are an analogy for humans and other animals. What distinguishes the one from the other? What makes it unique?

I just notice now that an inference is missing in your statement : "a red cube with stripes". The color of stripes is not indicated. I guess this should be " a red cube with BLUE stripes " ?
Has this been voluntarily omitted ?

[Korrelan]

I don't get it?

The last one is the only one with both a specified colour and pattern?
The last one was the last item mentioned?
The last one was probably the last one you typed?
The last one has the longest description (number of letters/ words)?
The last one took more mental resources to consider, to make it different?
The last one is the rightmost on a standard formatted screen layout?
The last one is the forth where none of the others are?

Or is it that shape/ colour doesn't matter?

 

I presume you read the post title correctly? What defines Human... not what defines 'a' human amongst others.

 

[Art]

What about compassion? I've seen all sorts of animals exhibit this type of behavior and not just for their own type.
A chimp feeling compassion for a kitten or a gorilla for a fallen human child, etc. While clearly compassion isn't a human owned behavior, the lack of is always met with strong criticism for not being human or having feelings. With compassion usually comes Understanding.

Perhaps 'human', is knowing what elicits compassion and how to deal with or act upon experiencing it, maybe toward a homeless person, a wounded soldier, a child who has lost his / her parents in an accident, a person with dementia who's losing a lifetime of memories, shedding a tear for someone you don't even know, caring for your fellow human being as if he/she were family. We all are.

Just some thoughts....

[Don Patrick]

The discussion so far seemed to focus on what distinguishes a human from other animals, so that was my context.
I'll get to the answer: In my analogy there is NO single trait that makes the last item unique. Only the combination of having all three traits is what distinguishes it from the others and makes it unique.

We have legs, some animals have legs. We can reason, some animals can reason. We can make tools, some animals can make tools. I  do not think that any trait we have is uniquely human. However, an entity that shares a majority of traits with the average human, give or take the loss of a limb or some mental faculty, is human. In my opinion the line is not drawn at any specific trait but at a percentage of traits.

Of course, some human traits are less common in the animal kingdom than others, so I don't mind people trying to figure out which are the most rare traits.

[8pla.net]

It is not possible to cook underwater.
How about dolphins, in terms of intelligence?
Interesting post, though... (Just analyzing it).

[Korrelan]

@Don

In my analogy there is NO single trait that makes the last item unique. Only the combination of having all three traits is what distinguishes it from the others and makes it unique.

Erm... isn't that a contradiction? lol.

@8pla

It is not possible to cook underwater.

Try telling that too a shrimp that lives on a hydrothermal vent lol.

 

[8pla.net]

"There is only one characteristic that sets humans apart from all other animals. We cook our food. This means that we use a much smaller proportion of our available energy digesting our food. We are able to expend more than a third of our available energy thinking whereas other animals, no matter how intelligent, can afford to spend less than 10 percent of their available energy thinking. Everything else follows from that one difference.", infurl commented last week. 

To this, I replied that i found the theory interesting, which I still do. Just to clarify, my comment about dolphins not cooking underwater was not intended to debunk infurl's theory... But, simply to analyze it... An attempt to break it down a little further.

Perhaps all the advanced animal kingdom abilities of dolphins, crows and primates are possible by spending less than 10%. In theory, then what does that suggest about simulating human behavior, language, tool making, etc., in A.I. such as a neural network?   

Some animals do, to at least some degree, possess these human-like abilities. Dolphins have language (and much more). Orangutans have human sign-language.  Crows, with their bird brains have tool making, and other amazing abilities. I think, the 10% theory would make these human-like abilities more doable to simulate in artificial intelligence, than perhaps if they required 30%.

[infurl]

To this, I replied that i found the theory interesting, which I still do. Just to clarify, my comment about dolphins not cooking underwater was not intended to debunk infurl's theory... But, simply to analyze it... An attempt to break it down a little further.

It's not my theory. I don't waste anybody's time speculating about things that are outside my areas of expertise. I just read a lot so I just happen to know that human beings cooking their food is what differentiates us from all other animals, according to current research. There are plenty of articles about it accessible on the web. Here's one for you to read right now.

http://www.popsci.com.au/science/eating-cooked-food-made-us-human,378424

More generally, human beings control external sources of energy. No other animals do that.