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Hence why mice and rats are often used for neurological studies.

Also the fact that they breed and age rapidly.

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Hmm maybe all mammals share some common traits.. hmm

Might be an amateurish thing to say but from all the things I've learned so far it seems to me like the only thing that really sets out apart from the Animal Kingdom which has also allowed us to expand and create and coexist impressively well in very large groups; is our ability to communicate and assign labels to things, if I may put it in such simple terms

Also being able to walk upright freeing our hands to carry tools, resources and communicate.

When I was growing up the popular wisdom was our reasoning sets us apart. I'd argue that it's actually our suppression of urges and behaviors that sets us apart.

>I'd argue that it's actually our suppression of urges and behaviors that sets us apart.

Oh yea that's deff a unique quality we posses, but our ability to reason and control our urges and instincts only comes to play thanks to our ability to understand and assign meaning to things rendering them as more detached from us. Being able to understand something is having power over it, is what I'm trying to say. It seems everytime I try and understand how we came to our sentience and grew all our qualities that define us as unique, it always comes down to the the same thing.

Have you heard about the theory of Bicameral Mentality by Julius Jaynes? Very interesting read highly recommend you check it out.

We are in fact part of the animal kingdom

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the branch-like extensions that conduct electrical signals – were larger and more complex than other mammals like rodents.

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Our entire bodies have a similar structure.

From my amateurish reading and thinking about the subject, it's rather our ability to explain things and we don't know yet how we do that exactly. That's also why they should just have mentioned the neocortex instead of the (as yet not entirely understood) source of creativity. BTW, understanding where this capacity to explain comes from would also enable us to create true AI.

Many animals communicate (albeit with a much more limited vocabulary) and classify things (although much less flexibly, according to predefined criteria).

I wonder why. Maybe it has something to do with us being mammals.

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Not surprising. Rodents are pretty smart, just check out all the videos on YouTube of folks trying to keep them out of bird feeders.

A side note but there was a study they did on rats which blocked all vit D3 absorption but I believe maintained all other nutrients, at 5 months old the rats biological age was nearing end of lifespan. The fantastic thing about such short lived yet complex mammals is that we can essentially view different effects on fast forward, if you assume it only lives for 2 years then 5 months is approx 20% of the lifespan.

I'm aware, that's a typo.

This is the premise of the movie "Old".

>I'd argue that it's actually our suppression of urges and behaviors that sets us apart.

Except it's not true! In various various species such a chimps, crows and even cuttlefish it has been show that they can temporarily suppress the urge to eat food which they are free to eat at any moment after they have learned that they could get more food if they wait some time and that they won't get the additional food if they don't wait and eat the available food now.

The cuttlefish in the study even try to look away from the food to evade the urge.

Here's an article about the study concerning cuttlefish: https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2021/mar/03/cuttlefish-have-ability-to-exert-self-control-study-finds

That's super interesting! Thank you for this!

Np. I was absolutely amazed too when I saw it!! Those cuttlefish are so cute.

Now that you mention it, when I'm eating something like a steak or chicken and my dog knows she can't have it, she will try to avoid looking at it.

Which is why it is important to at least get some sunlight on the regular