by Sean Curtis

Created on: March 27, 2008

Being human means different things to different people. Does the question ask what capabilities we have that our relatives in the animal kingdom don't? Does the question ask about what it means to share the world with our fellow man? Does it ask about what separates us from machines in this technologically advanced world? The question is vast, with several ways to approach a response.

First of all, being human means being conscious. We are aware of our existence and can ponder what that means in the grander scheme of things. We can think beyond our immediate needs for food, water, and shelter. Stanley Kubrick's brilliant 1968 film "2001: A Space Odyssey" spends time examining this idea. The first twenty minutes of the film follow a group of man-apes, the missing link between ape and humans. They haven't yet developed the ability to talk, but they can certainly communicate in other fashions. One of the man-apes, while scavenging for food, has a revelation: he can use a bone as a weapon against a rival group of man-apes. This is the moment when man became conscious. And unfortunately deadly (and carnivorous, one could argue based on the film).

At some point, our brains evolved enough for us to be conscious of and want to understand the world around us. Psychology, philosophy, sociology, are all pursuits of understanding that were born from the consciousness we have as humans. Along the way we developed a hunger for understanding. It wasn't enough to exist in the world, we started asking "why" we existed in the world. We started asking questions that don't have answers, like "What's the meaning of life?" While there's no clear cut response, it's still a question worth examining.

So based on what we know, what does it mean to be human? We know it means to be conscious. It also means that humans can have ideas and persuade others to agree with them. Through the power of language, one human can convince another to do or want something. In my opinion, this truth has led to the highly hierarchical society we live in. One human convinces a bunch that he or she knows what is best for the group. Some humans are born leaders and some are born followers, so the system works out.

Being human also means to have compassion. While we have no tangible way of measuring something like compassion, there's no doubt that most humans feel it. Compassion seems to exist, in some forms, in the animal kingdom, but humans have taken it to new levels. As if to balance off this compassion, humans have also taken their destruction to new and horrible levels. Genocides, atom bombs, wars, oppression, humans find new ways to harm each other every day.

We will probably never be able to fully define what it means to be human. We can define it emotionally, scientifically, religiously, philosophically, and any different way. And like the age-old question, "What is the meaning of life?", the question of "What does it mean to be human?" is nearly as vast and complex.

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