15 February, 2015

What Makes Humans Different? Fiction and Cooperation | Arts & Culture | Smithsonian

What Makes Humans Different? Fiction and Cooperation | Arts & Culture | Smithsonian: The truly unique trait of Sapiens is our ability to create and believe fiction. All other animals use their communication system to describe reality. We use our communication system to create new realities. Of course not all fictions are shared by all humans, but at least one has become universal in our world, and this is money. Dollar bills have absolutely no value except in our collective imagination, but everybody believes in the dollar bill.