Summary:
• Humans have always wanted to feel special, but many traits once believed to be uniquely human are not unique. Our genetic code as humans is very similar to that of other primates. Artificial Intelligence (AI) systems can outperform humans in many tasks.
• Our genetic code makes our bodies human and determines our physical traits, but it does not contain the soul. The soul is non-material. The soul is not a human being having a spiritual experience, but a spiritual being having a human experience.
• Modern humans originated in Africa about 300,000 years ago. Our ancestors gradually spread across the world and interbred with human-like species such as the Neanderthals and Denisovans. Those other species contributed to our current genetic code.
• Humans alone developed sophisticated language and writing, allowing us to read the thoughts of people who lived hundreds or even thousands of years ago. Our ability to love deeply and widely gives us responsibilities that no other species on Earth has.
• Because humans can transform the entire planet (and we have), our responsibilities extend not only to ourselves and our families but also to our communities, to our species, to other species, and to the entire planet.
• Responsibility gives purpose to life. Even as machines become more advanced, humans remain responsible for what those machines do because we created and programmed them.
• Every person is unique, with a personality, experiences, talents, and perspectives. Variety among people is a strength because that variety creates more ideas and more ways to solve problems.
• Learning, growing, and helping others are central to what it means to be human. Life is complicated. Your human purpose may have several aspects.
Humans like to feel special. We want to feel special. There was a time when most people believed that their world was at the center of the Universe, and that the Sun, the Moon, and the stars all orbited their world. Later, we discovered that the Sun is at the center of the Solar system, that our world is a planet, that Earth is a relatively small planet, and that the Sun is a quite ordinary star.
There was a time when most people believed that humans have no distant connection to apes or to any other animals, such as fish. Then the theory of evolution was proposed; it was proposed several times across several centuries, because it is supported by an overwhelming amount of evidence, including the obvious physical similarities between humans and other primates.
Most people once believed that humans must be the most intelligent entities on Earth. Now machines using artificial intelligence can perform intellectual tasks too difficult for humans to do. There was a time when most people believed that humans must be the most creative entities on Earth. Now machines using artificial intelligence are creating literature, art, music, engineering designs, and other products. Humans created the first few generations of those machines, but now our machines are creating machines. And like children who later become smarter than their parents, our machines are becoming smarter than we are. Furthermore, the new machines created by the older machines are becoming smarter than the older machines.
Perhaps we want to feel special, but many of the traits and abilities that we once believed to be uniquely human are, in fact, not unique to us. If humans are not entirely unique, if we are not really so special, then what does it mean to be human?
Within each biological cell of your body is a chemical called Deoxyribo-Nucleic Acid, or DNA. It is your genetic code. Encoded in your DNA are biological instructions for your body that determine your physical traits. You have a human body instead of another creature’s body because your DNA instructed your cells to create a human body. DNA is extremely complicated because your body is extremely complicated, and your DNA also includes the biological history of your ancestors. DNA consists of a long code of tiny groups of information called genes, and they are also extremely complicated. No single gene determines an entire trait, such as intellect or skin color. Instead, as an example, more than 150 genes are involved in determining the color of your eyes.
Your DNA makes you human, but that fact may not feel emotionally satisfying. Scientific investigations have revealed that at least 84 percent of human DNA is identical to the DNA of other primates, such as chimpanzees, gorillas, and orangutans. In other words, only 16 percent or less of your DNA makes you a human instead of another primate such as an ape. Although chimpanzees are very different from humans, there are some remarkable similarities. Chimpanzees have bodies similar to humans, chimpanzees use primitive tools, they build nests (beds) to sleep in, they live in communities, and, shockingly, their communities sometimes wage war, operating as groups that kill other groups of chimpanzees.
According to other scientific investigations, humans became their own species, distinct from earlier primates, about 300,000 years ago. Our distant ancestors originated in Africa and, very gradually over thousands of years, tribes of early humans migrated throughout Africa and eventually to the other continents and also to numerous islands as far away as Indonesia, Cuba, and the British Isles. (If any early humans reached Antarctica, they didn’t stay long.) Some species very similar to humans also emerged. We have physical evidence that they existed, such as bones, and we have given those other species various names, such as the Neanderthals and the Denisovans. Our species, Homo sapiens, lived on Earth during approximately the same time they lived, and so maybe there was some competition for food. Did early humans cause the extinction of the Neanderthals, the Denisovans, and others? Not entirely. Humans interbred with them. Today, in your genetic code, you may have traces of the Neanderthals, Denisovans, and others.
Nowhere in your DNA is your soul. This is because your soul is non-material. And your soul is not human. Your soul is using your human body to live a human lifetime. Your body can influence your spirit, which is different from your soul, because your spirit consists of your intentions expressed through your actions. When your body feels hungry, or tired, or in physical pain, your body is influencing your spirit by influencing the decisions you make as a result. But your spirit is not your soul.
So, what does it mean to be human? Some traits of ours are not uniquely human, but they are more advanced in humans than in any other species on Earth. Human intelligence, for example, has created sophisticated languages and, later, sophisticated writing systems. This combination of language, writing, and reading has helped to educate many generations of humans and will continue to. When you read something written a long time ago, you are reading the thoughts of people from that time, which can be hundreds or even thousands of years ago. No other species can do that.
Humans also love. Humans love probably more deeply and almost certainly more widely than any other species on Earth. The combination of our extraordinary intelligence with our ability to love means that humans have extraordinary responsibilities. Other species can love, and many species feel responsibilities as parents and as members of the same family or group, but they lack the means to transform the entire planet. Humans can transform the entire planet, and we already have. Our ancestors transformed the world when they spread across and settled on almost every continent except Antarctica, and reached almost every island. Today, humans number in the billions. There are people living in Antarctica. There are people living in outer space.
Consider how extraordinary our responsibilities are. We have responsibilities to ourselves, to our families, to our communities, to our species, to other species, to our home planet, and beyond. We can love people whom we have never met. We can love species that are not human. Our intelligence can investigate and understand how the world works and how the Universe works, identifying variables and relationships that other species on Earth may never understand. Our intelligence has invented technologies that other species on Earth may never comprehend. We can also destroy things and places, massively, and have done so throughout history. But we also know, spiritually, that to love and care for others is better than to destroy. No other species on Earth has so much power and so many responsibilities. And our power and responsibilities are still growing.
Responsibility is a burden but also a purpose. Humans need a purpose that provides us with meaning. Living without responsibility may feel pleasant for a while, but it fails to last. To feel fulfilled, we need a purpose. No matter how advanced our machines become, including machines that create machines, we will always have some responsibility for them and for whatever they do because we are their creators. We invented them. We programmed them. We granted them the power to do whatever they do. When they do something wrong, we may blame the machines but the solution is our responsibility. Responsibility is a purpose.
What does it mean that you, an individual, are human? Despite human similarities, every person is unique. Even so-called identical twins are not really identical because the two individuals have subtle physical differences. And every person has free will. Every person has a personality, experiences, interests, abilities, talents, perspectives and insights. The problems of the world will not be solved by making everyone the same. Variety is a strength, not a weakness, because variety engages more people, more talents, more imagination, more ideas, more ways to identify a solution and then implement it. In comparison to the needs of the world, you may feel that your own responsibilities are small. But they are your responsibilities and that makes them important.
You may wonder if you are fulfilling your human purpose and your spiritual mission. The first step towards answering that question is to ask it. It may have several answers, not only one, because life is complicated. You interact with the world in many different ways and at many different levels. The most important experiences of your life may not be pleasant and your responsibilities may not be easy, but they are the reasons why you are living a human lifetime—to learn and grow, and to help others to learn and grow. All of that is what it means to be human and why you are human. That is the point.