After reading Amusing Ourselves to Death, by Neil Postman, one of the earliest (and numerous) sentences that I highlighted was, "Speech, of course, is the primal and indispensable medium. It made us human, keeps us human, and in fact defines what human means" (Postman 9). It's a bit ridiculous that we continue to live and ignore our unique abilities that we possess that other species are incapable of having. Especially as everyone's speeches are distinct from one another as Postman discusses of how our media-metaphors defines and processes our world for us, but I do want to raise a question regarding Postman's statements. Is there a more defining future of humans other than our speech?
Granted, our capability to define our own speech certainly makes us stand out from other species, but do you think there's a human feature that stands out more than our speech? I like to think that our ability to think complicatedly and abstractly is a great candidate against speech. Maybe our ability to blush (turns out we're the only species to blush, who knew) is a nice runner-up?
- Ashley Salgado
I do not think that there is a human feature that stands out more than our speech because our language is what makes people most special. However, there are other human features that make us unique from other species. Like you said, our ability to blush and think are something that makes us human. However, I also believe that our ability to feel lots of different emotions can make us different from other species. Although, there are animals capable of emotions like sadness and happiness, humans are able to feel more complex emotions.
ReplyDelete