Ecology: Biology of Interactions. 6.17. (Supplement) Unique Ecological Features of Humans
To identify the unique features of our species, we should compare human populations and populations of any other animal species ecologically—that is, in terms of exchanges of matter, energy, and information.
Ukrainian (latest version) / Russian (updates discontinued) 6.16. (Supplement) How Do Humans Differ from Other Animals?
D. Shabanov, M. Kravchenko. Ecology: Biology of Interactions Chapter 6. Human Ecology and Nature Protection
6.18. (Supplement) Cultural Inheritance as a Mechanism for Transmission of Acquired Traits
6.18. (Addendum) Cultural Inheritance as a Way of Transmitting Acquired Traits
6.17. (Supplement) Unique Ecological Features of Humans To identify the unique features of our species, we should compare human populations and populations of any other animal species ecologically—that is, in terms of exchanges of matter, energy, and information. All animals exist as populations—sets of individuals inhabiting particular habitats and exploiting their resources. This also applies to cosmopolitan species distributed across the Earth. Humans are not merely a cosmopolitan species, but the only global species. Humanity is not simply a set of individuals of Homo sapiens Linnaeus, 1758, but an entity with properties absent in its parts. Try to imagine an analogous concept for any other species. The difference between a cosmopolitan species and a global species is not distribution breadth, but the nature of interactions among populations. For example, the brown rat is cosmopolitan and lives almost everywhere humans do, and in some places beyond that. But each rat population exists only on resources of its local habitat. If a granary is emptied, the rat population living there disappears: some individuals die, some migrate elsewhere. But two rat populations never exchange resources. In how many countries were the things produced that most of us use every day? Resource exchange among populations is a typical feature of our species. We know many forms of this exchange—from trade to war and even humanitarian aid. Now it is not n human populations exploiting resources of n habitats; rather, unified humanity exploits the biosphere as a whole. Another fundamental feature concerns the nature of tools humans use. The obvious feature is that our tools are more complex than those of other species. But this is not the main difference. Tools can be divided into two groups: those functioning via energy of the user (a shovel), and those that themselves transform energy and resources (an excavator). Between them lies an intermediate category—tools using energy of other animals (for example, a plow pulled by livestock). Use of the intermediate category is not unique to humans (the extended phenotype, in R. Dawkins’ sense, in many species includes manipulation of other species), whereas use of the second category is our unique feature. Its first example was use of fire. These two basic human features (resource exchange and use of external energy-transforming processes) appeared at least at the level of Homo erectus. Present global humanity is the logical outcome of developments stemming from these acquisitions. The maximum “ceiling” of energy flow transformed by all other animals is determined by current primary production (the amount of “fixed” solar energy). Humanity surpassed these limits due to another unique trait: use of fossil fuels (primary production from past geological eras preserved as coal, oil, gas, etc.), and even use of atomic energy. [IMG_1] Fig. 6.17.1. By mastering new ways of obtaining energy, humanity shifts from use of current solar radiation to “unsealing” ever older energy sources. A fundamentally new human feature in this sense is that we sustain our current way of life through nonrenewable resources. For modern humans, this is an integral part of their lifestyle (part of their ecological niche). This makes our existence especially unstable: the pattern of human-environment relations formed in recent decades cannot continue for a long time. According to a rough estimate, humanity now destroys in one year as much fossil fuel as forms over a million years. All living organisms use various means of information exchange, but only in humans has information exchange overcome distance (we are interested in events on the other side of the planet) and time—at least one-way (we read texts written by long-dead people). This became possible through powerful channels of information transfer not tied to our bodies (writing, electromagnetic and optical methods of recording and transmitting data). Most energy used by humans is transformed not by our bodies, but by the technosphere—an isolated part of inanimate nature possessing many life-like properties (the technosphere has matter exchange, technical evolution, “life cycles” of units, etc.). Release of xenobiotics (substances foreign to living systems) into the biosphere is also linked to the technosphere. Technical wastes entering the biosphere through human activity have an important property absent in wastes of all organismal species: their quantity in the biosphere is not regulated. The amount of any substance entering the biosphere through some natural process is ultimately balanced by an opposite process; otherwise the global system we observe could not remain relatively stable. Humans, however, drive rapid change by launching new processes whose outcomes are not regulated in the biosphere. This list can be continued, but it cannot exhaust all human-specific characteristics. A few thousand years ago, these features were not yet typical of our species, yet humans already stood apart from other animals. What made this possible? Additional materials: Column: The Energy of Morning Coffee Column: What Is Reflected in a Cup of Coffee? Column: Coffee and Chthonic Forces Column: Planetary Coffee Column: Coffee and the Third Nature Column: Coffee and the Co-Consciousness of the Noosphere
6.16. (Supplement) How Do Humans Differ from Other Animals?
D. Shabanov, M. Kravchenko. Ecology: Biology of Interactions Chapter 6. Human Ecology and Nature Protection
6.18. (Supplement) Cultural Inheritance as a Means of Transmitting Acquired Traits
6.18. (Addendum) Cultural Inheritance as a Way of Transmitting Acquired Traits