What is special about humans?

[Steve Johnson <***>]

In thinking about "Natural Law" I came to wonder about what key factors set humans aside from other animals to make the universe comprehensible to them. Two possibilities come to mind:

 

1) Nothing. The difference is merely quantitative. That is, human circle of understanding is larger than that of a dog, which in turn is larger than that of a worm and so on in an unbroken continuum. For example, we have General Relativity as a model of Natural phenomenon we call gravity, while the dog has a model that if it catches a spherical object and brings it to this creature, the creature will give it a sugar cube that it enjoys. In other words, humans are a better anticipatory system but only in degree, not in kind. 

 

2)  Human mind represents a new kind of emergence different in the universe's hierarchy of structure. If so, what are the factors that made this emergence possible. The only one I could think of is language.

 

Any opinions on this?

 

- Steve

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