Quote:
Originally Posted by TGS
Is it? Isn't that a bit like saying that the temperature of water at 10 degrees is closer to the temperature of boiling water than it is to the temperature of ice because water at 10 degrees and boiling water are both liquid and ice is not?
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I do believe we have a lot in common with all lifeforms on Earth. We are all descended from the same ancestor, a long long time ago, and birds are closer to us than, say bacteria. But not as much as apes. I see it all as a question of degree, which I would not dare try to quantify. But we do have things in common with birds. We have warm blood as they do, and we need sex to reproduce as they do. And some of us sing too
We tend to concentrate on differences, because they are what helps us, well, differentiate things (
), that is, classify, describe and understand them. And the practical consequences of tiny differences can be huge. But in fact the differences are very few in number, compared to the similarities. This is especially true within the human species, but it's also true of the way we look at other living beings.
I wonder, if we ever manage to find life elsewhere (intelligent or otherwise), how
really different it will be.