What prevents other animals/species from evolving and developing cognitively the same way humans have?
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One thing I want to add to the other great answers here: while they don’t exist anymore, there used to be other “human” species. And not just direct predecessors of modern humans, but species more like cousins. You might have heard of Neandertals, but there are other groups like the Denisovians. Both groups were closely related enough to Homo Sapiens (you and me and all modern humans) that we have good genetic evidence that the groups interbred with humans on multiple occasions. It’s impossible for us to gauge their exact “intelligence”, but there is possible evidence that some of these groups were intelligent enough to do things like make fire, make cave art, or possibly even bury their dead. A lot of this stuff is the subject of ongoing research and I’m no expert. But my point is that it is also possible that humans were less unique and special than we thought and we were simply the last ones standing.
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