Humans Are Special: Difference between revisions

* Heavily averted in the writings of [[HP Lovecraft]]. Humanity is a weak, feeble species of animals living in a universe entirely governed by things that don't ''bother'' wiping us out because we're beneath consideration.

** To be fair, Lovecraft saw everything like this (with the possible exception of the Great Race of Yith who learnt to evade death). In "The Shadow Out of Time" we learn that even Cthulhu itself {{spoiler|dies cold and alone beneath the Earth.}} It's not just humans that are insignificant on the cosmic scale, it's pretty much all life.

* Subverted in ''The [[Hitch Hikers Guide to The Galaxy]]'', where humanity is infamously summed up as ''mostly harmless''.

** And yet humans still managed to beat Krikkit and stymie Hactar's plot to destroy the universe. Slartibartfast was the leader of that effort, but it was Trillian and Arthur who did the heavy lifting.

* The [[Gordon R Dickson]] short story ''[http://www.webscription.net/chapters/0743471741/0743471741___1.htm Danger - Human]'' featured aliens who have captured a human for study. During previous eons, humans have been found to be responsible for the destruction of galactic civilization, multiple times, and the aliens wanted to find out what trait or stimulus caused this change, in order to prevent it. Multiple security precautions are used including a sealed chamber, constant surveillance, and a single exit guarded by a 20-foot-high force field that only turns off for a short period of time during certain parts of the day. In the end, the human character, who has been repeatedly vivisected, psychoanalyzed, and generally given a rough time, snaps. He manages to escape his chamber, evade all surveillance, and somehow pass through or above the force field, completely unaffected by it. He then hijacks a nearby interstellar cargo vessel and heads back to Earth. The aliens are all suddenly feeling an existential dread as they realize that they have just provided humanity with the reason and the means to destroy galactic civilization once again.

** Suppose "We are really, ''really'' sorry about that" won't cut it, huh?

* In the [[Alan Dean Foster]] novel ''Design for Great-Day'', human loquaciousness is described as being their special talent. Other races can speak conversationally and use metaphors and everything else we associate with speech, but humans in particular are known for their ability to "talk the legs off an alligator and cast serious doubts on its parentage in the process". The implication is that while other races ''can'' use speech this way (it is, after all, an alien saying this of humans), humans are inherently better at it.

** In Foster's [[Humanx Commonwealth]] universe, mankind is not inherently better or worse than the alien races they meet; but humans are ''very'' enthusiastic for fighting, even those who aren't trained warriors. And they are very adaptive. The insectoid Thranx may be better at logic and thrive in tropical climates, and the reptilian Aan are aggressive and can survive in deserts, but humans can alternate between logic and viciousness and survive ''everywhere'' with remarkable ease.

* In [[JRR Tolkien (Creator)|Tolkien's Lengendarium]], God endows humanity with "strange gifts." Mortals have more freedom to choose their own destiny, and also can leave the world -- i.e., die. The latter is described as something that, eventually, the Elves and [[Powers That Be]] will [[Who Wants to Live Forever?|come to envy]].

* In [[Harry Turtledove]]'s ''[[Worldwar (Literature)]]'' and ''Colonization'' series, like in "Rescue Party" above, humans are also extremely fast at cultural and technological development, compared to the three other known species.

*** There are also biological reasons. Humans are the only primates of the four known races. The rest are all [[Lizard Folk]]. Additionally, the Race, the Hallessi, and the Rabotevs all have a mating season, which is the only time of the year the males try to outperform their peers in order to catch a female's attention. Contrast this with humans, who are horny year-round (this is not to say that men are the only reason society advances; this is merely an example).

** In its sequel, Herbig-Haro, humanity encountered a race even more advanced than they were, and were conquered themselves.

* In ''[[The Host (Literature)|The Host]]'', humans not only have more senses than any other species the Souls use as hosts (point one in our favor) but also much more intense emotions. Meyer goes so far as to have Wanderer basically decide that although Souls give love somewhat unconditionally, humanity's tendency to be emotionally intense, confusing, irrational and even a tad fickle makes ''human'' love a lot more precious, precisely because it's rarer, harder to achieve and much more inexplicable (point two in our favor). Humans are also apparently the only species that's ever been remotely capable of retaining part of their original personalities when possessed by a Soul (point three in our favor). In contrast, the Souls, while very technologically advanced, very successful at taking over other planets, and naturally, unusually altruistic and kind... ''are dumb as rocks''.

** Deliciously deconstructed in the final season of ''Enterprise'', with [[Fantastic Racism|Human Supremacism]] being the driving ideology of both the Terran Empire in the [[Mirror Universe]] and the fascist "Terra Prime" organization.

*** It's never satisfactorily explained how the Federation reconciles its multiculturalism with its humanism. For a race so assured of their own superiority, the humans sure put up with a lot of barbarism.

{{quote| '''The Doctor:''' Indomitable! That's the word! Indomitable!}}

** The Doctor expresses contempt for [[Puny Earthlings]] ("stupid apes") during his darker moments. He does have a point, since Time Lords are superior in nearly every way. However, he has a certain degree of admiration for humans that inspires him to help them over and over again. They're just so ''special''!

* Played straight on the 3 campaigns of ''[[Guild Wars]]'' since the [[Player Character]] can only be human, [[All There in the Manual|the lore]] mentions that when humans appeared they had no thick hides, sharp claws or fangs to defend themselves from monsters, but they worshipped the gods who created Tyria and in turn those gods gave them the gift of magic to defend themselves, thanks to this, humans were able to dominate the 3 continents, it is also mentioned that the humans's comings and goings are of great interest to said gods althought [[The Gods Must Be Lazy|they no longer directly intervene]]. It is also human heroes the ones who defeat the fallen god Abaddon and it is the human Kormir {{spoiler|the one who consumes his power and ascends to goddess}}.

** From Eye of the North onward this is been steadily subverted with the introduction of several races like the Asura, Norn and Sylvari, the Charr had already been introduced on the first campaign, ''Prophecies'', Guild Wars 2 is confirmed to have all of those as playable races, details on the story show that humans have been pushed back because {{spoiler|of the emergence of ancient dragons}} allowing other races to gain foothold on previously human-controlled territories, as it is mentioned "all races are now on equal footing".

** Though, humans have not that much competition with only Reploids being a rival 'race.' And some as Copy-X are programmed to serve/support humans so it's not their choice to do so.

* Lucasarts' ''[[The Dig]]'' uses this trope. The aliens who [[Ascend to A Higher Plane of Existence]] as immortal [[Energy Beings]] eventually find that they are [[Who Wants to Live Forever?|doomed to be mere observers for all time]] without physical bodies. They want to come back home, but can't find the way, and the only surviving alien is certain that if the humans open the gateway, they too will find themselves unable to tear themselves away from the beauty of Spacetime Six and ultimately be trapped as surely as the aliens were. Fortunately, [[Humans Are Special]] and have [[Heroic Willpower]] (or sheer bloody-minded stubbornness) that allows them to resist the siren's song and hold the gate open for the aliens' return.

* According to Dr. Tomorrow in ''[[The Mercury Men]]'', humans are unique and special among all the races in the galaxy. They are the only race that has discovered space flight.

* The ''With More, With Less'' arc in ''[[Harbourmaster]]'' deconstructs this. The entomorphs do like quite a bit about humans and Aquaans, but feel they ought to be wary of them anyway. No matter what any given human's psyche is, they're the dominant side of the relationship, whether they seek/desire it or not, just by having the more powerful technology. That power makes it functionally impossible for humans to do more than "let" the entomorphs determine their own affairs and keep sovereignty over the world of Tethys in general. After all, even pure benevolence is no perfect ward against the malignity that carelessness can bring...

 

== [[Web Original]] ==

* The most obvious difference between humans and every other species on the planet is our sapience -- but then, that hardly counts, since any intelligent aliens (which is what this trope is about) would have that too, by definition (and it's not like we can really ''know'' that other creatures don't have sapience too). Ditto opposable thumbs and toolmaking, agriculture, language, music, art, etc. in the vast majority of examples.

** These two videos [http://www.ted.com/talks/robert_sapolsky_the_uniqueness_of_humans.html 1] [http://www.ted.com/talks/matt_ridley_when_ideas_have_sex.html 2] cover unique aspects of humans.

** The only animals that can match us in this regard are wolves -- even horses, which are commonly thought of as high-endurance animals due to their ability to travel at high speeds even while carrying heavy loads, can't match human endurance over a period of days rather than hours.

*** Actually, Spotted hyenas do it as well, though faster than humans or wolves, and thus shorter (between about 3 and 10 km depending on the prey).

 

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[[Category:Humans Are Indexed]]

[[Category:Humans Are Special]]