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A long, long time ago, probably somewhere in East Africa, something interesting happened. Something that had never happened before, and has never happened again. It first occured to early humans that it would be advantageous for them to actually know things. Not just remembering previous experiences, but posing a question, finding the answer and remembering that. It is this concept of knowledge, and the ability to expand and share it by asking and answering questions, that I believe sets humans apart from all other animals, even those considered to be highly intelligent.

Numerous different animals have been trained to anwer our questions in equally numerous ways. With moderate success, I might add. Some of these animals have learned to answer fairly complex questions. But as far as I know, none of them have ever taken the next logical step and started asking us — or themselves, for that matter — questions. And why would they? Without a concept of knowledge, what benefit would it serve?

Domesticated animals definitely know how to ask for things, or at least make their whishes apparent to us. For instance, we have two dogs who have no problem communicating when they need to go, when they’re hungry, or just want to play. Especially in the last case, one of our dogs really appears to be saying “please come and play with me”, begging for attention while bringing some toy and being very excited and all. But nothing that would even hint at the posssibility that they want to know something.

All this is just my brain’s tendency to go all philosophical when I’m feeling sick and am otherwise incapable of being productive. It simply hit me that, while largely taken for granted, our understanding of knowledge and our ability to expand on it and share it, is actually quite profound. Just a sentiment I thought was worth sharing.