[eli5] Why did humans advance so far so fast while other intelligent animals did not?
In: 944
Not really if you think in absolute terms. For a long time we didn’t do much in terms of advancement 4.4 million years ago the first human descendant showed up. That dwarves the last 6000 years of recorded history and the 300+ years of rapid scientific achievements.
But to answer your question there where a few things that combined brought us a lot of benefits compared to other species:
* bipedal (standing up)
* Opposable thumbs that allow us to grab on to things like tools.
* Very big (compared to body size) and rugged brains (meaning more space for more brain cells)
* Brain that dwarfed on some areas to allow for speech (probably biggest advantage imo)
* omnivorous diet
* having the ability to domesticate animals and plant plants
* pattern recognition and curiosity
* (later on)symbiosis with wolves
* history telling, writing, books, press and internet
All of these combined gave us a pretty decent ability to adapt to various scenarios. But in the end the advancements come from being able to learn and build on top of previous knowledge. We wouldn’t be able to come this far if we had to reinvent the wheel every time. That is what makes advancement
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