The reason our intelligence has accelerated as fast as it has is because we tamed fire. There is evidence of fire being used in caves in China where the "homo erectus" dwelt at least a half a million years ago. Fire made it possible to survive cold winters and long nights, to achieve security against fire-avoiding predators, and to roast food, therefore broadening our diet and limiting the danger of bacteria.

As a result of this... human beings multiplied in number... which meant more brains to plan future advances. With fire, life wasnt so hand-to-mouth, so there was more time to put those brains to work on things other than immediate emergencies. In short... the use of fire put into motion a serious of technological and intellectual advances.

So basically... fire kicks ass.

You said...

"Animals do not build, do not invent, do not create, do not debate, do not inspire, do not become inspired, cannot rationalize, and are incapable of understanding even the simplest human emotions or thoughts"

With respect this is utter rubbish. Although it is possible you may be correct about not inspiring or becoming inspired ALL the other things in your list have been witnessed and documented in some animals (converselly there are many humans who are incapable of most, or even any, of these things - in fact we all are incapable of them for the first weeks/months of our lives even though we are members of the human species during that whole time, and some are never able to throughout their whole mentally retarded lives..sadly.)

First off, as we are also animals, like it or not, your traditional "them and us" attitude is outdated and inaccurate. Your facts are also incorrect...

Emotion - dogs pining themselves to death following the death of their masters - documented.

Build - ever seen a birds nest ? What is that if not something that was built ?

Invent - When a chimp takes small a branch from a tree and fashions it into a tool for hunting, eating, scratching etc. What else is he doing if not inventing tools for his particular needs, with forethought and planning. Visualising what he requires before creating it in accordance with that mental picture.

Create - both the above are also examples of this.

Debate - Definition: communicating opinions on a given topic with reasoned argument. Non-human example includes African Wild Hunting Dogs collectively reasoning on the best way of chasing a quarry, through vocal and visual communication (often followed by disagreement) and then resolution - all documented by scientists

Rationalisation - rational thought is required for debating and invention (above)

Simplest human emotions - fear, loss, joy etc. Are you SERIOUSLY suggesting that no non-human is capable of such things (too many examples to know where to begin here....dog pining, as above, elephants standing around the bodies of their dead famnily members for hours, even days lameting their loss, Otters observed enjoying play for the pure pleasure of it etc, etc) - all scientifically witnessed and documented.

You are generalising about humans and non-humans in much the same way as saying that for example "man are physically stronger than women". Yes, ON AVERAGE perhaps but their are probalby millions of cases globally of some whomen who are stronger than some men. The same argument applies with human and non-human animals. THere is no "them and us" you are far too simplistic.

A human-only trait which you SHOULD add to your list is steroetyping, which is what your post has done (and many others here). It is a dangerous, ignorant trait, and ironically often one of the few uniquely human ones left.

down voted by an obvious moron who can't rebuttal worth of shit.

how sad.

I'm curious on two separate points....

1 - you give the impression that intelligence or lack of it should be a deciding factor in whether or not someone lives or dies. Why is that ?

I can see no logical connection between the two things.

2 - You also appear to be generalising about "we humans". Many humans can't shoot a gun, and even if they could how does that make them intelligent. Shooting a gun is not that difficult. INVENTING, DESIGNING and then BUILDING a gun takes intelligence, but then most humans wouldn't know how to do those things any more than a non-human. Could you ?? Could anyone on this forum ??

I agree with you on one of your comments though....

People often say that "we" are more this or that, but which "we" are they talking about? Most of the achievements people quote to prove any kind of superior intelligence (space exploration, ships, cars, guns, technology etc, etc.) were actually only invented by a very small percentage of the human population. THEY may be more intelligent than other animals (including the rest of us), but that doesn't mean every other "human" is more intelligent than every "animal", as if merely being a human is certain proff of being more intelligent than a non-human. thet is rubbish. Yet most people do it all the time. Why ??

What about a particular individual human with very severe brain damage, he or she may have no more intelligence than an earthworm, for example. A harsh reality, but true nevertheless. The same can be said of a two-day old baby; human but probably less intelligent than the average rat.

There are many overlaps, and when it comes to intelligence species groups are irrellevent. There are only "individuals" across all species.

admit it - to build a machine indeed requires intelligence, we do math - intelligence