Ecologist Wolfgang Goymann believes that the decisive factor that makes humans different from all other species is our intelligence — and the ability to consciously use it for mass destruction.
A renowned behavioral ecologist has published a scathing assessment of humanity’s place in the natural world, arguing that although humans possess unparalleled cognitive abilities, our inability to apply wisdom to our actions may make us “both the most intelligent creature and the silliest thing planet Earth has ever seen“.
The , published in the magazine Ethology, is authored by Wolfgang Goymannfrom the Max Planck Institute for Biological Intelligence.
Goymann’s editorial explores an age-old question: what really sets humans apart from other species? While our advanced intellect is often treated as the defining characteristic of Homo sapiens, it underlines that intelligence itself is not exclusively human.
Even animals with small brains, including invertebrates, have demonstrated surprising cognitive abilities. Bees, for example, have recently demonstrated understand basic mathematics and can even be trained to interpret Morse code. Crows and other birds have demonstrated similarly sophisticated problem-solving abilities.
The researcher also questions the idea that humans are the only species capable of deliberately limit reproduction. Some birds can reject sperm from unwanted partners, and certain rodents can spontaneously abort embryos; biological strategies that work in a very similar way to contraception.
If intellect or reproductive control don’t make humans exceptional, Goymann asks, what does? One disturbing possibility, he suggests, is our unprecedented ability to trigger mass extinction. However, even this is not unique: Plants triggered two previous extinction events—the Great Oxygenation Event 2.7 billion years ago and the Late Devonian extinction 360 million years ago—by transforming Earth’s atmosphere and climate.
What distinguishes humans, argues Goymann, is intention and consciousness. “We are the first organism with a brain and the cognitive capabilities that can cause a mass extinction consciously, with our eyes wide open,” he writes. Unlike previous life forms that unwittingly reshaped the planet, humans risk not only exterminating countless species but also potentially engineering their own downfall.
Scientists have long warned that human activity may already be driving a sixth mass extinctionwith biodiversity loss accelerating across the world. Goymann observes that our contradictory nature of immense intelligence combined with fallacious judgment is at the heart of this crisis.
