Every night for the past four nights I have been having very strange dreams. The ones where you lose something or run away from something. I dont particularly care for them and I feel that I would start my day off much better if I didnt have them. I ran to class today. It was because I was 5 minutes late; but I really wonder, am I just telling myself that its because I'm late for class, am I really just still trying to run away from that dream?

Humans, at least in the Western Tradition, spend an amazing amount of time trying to prove their superiority over other species. Part of this effort has been devoted to finding some uniquely human characteristic, some quality that sets our species apart from lower organisms. We used to say, for example, that homo sapiens was the only animal that reasoned, but studies of animal learning raised serious doubts about that. We said that we were the only creature to make and use tools, but then we discovered that chimpanzees make and use tools all the time. We said that humans were the only animals capable of learning language, but then we taught apes and porpoises to communicate.

One by one, the characteristics that we have held to be uniquely human have been found in other species. The ultimate futility of this endeavor was pointed out by the British philosopher Bertrand Russell:

"Organic life, we are told, has developed gradually from the protozoan to the philosopher; and this development, we are assured, is indubitably an advance. Unfortunately, it is the philosopher, not the protozoan, who gives us assurance."

Perhaps the only uniquely human characteristic is this: So far as we know, we are the only creature that spends time trying to prove its superiority over other creatures. The rest of the animal kingdom seems to treat this matter with indifference.