>>2 You should see my Free Will thread on Main, if you haven't already. You might find it interesting.
The most interesting thing about humans I find is external memory storage. It started with drawings on cave walls, notes, and it has worked up to the single driving force for all forms of progress for our species. The specie of monkeys as a whole are only as intelligent as the most intelligent monkey alive at that time. When she dies, her knowledge will will fade away and be forgotten. Humans, on the other hand, are as intelligent as the culmination of the most intelligent humans alive since the beginning of their race. Humans today know more than any human as ever known, while monkeys have advanced only as much as their memory will allow. Progress that would normally take hundreds of thousands of years take days.
It just keeps accelerating, too. Monkeys also suffer from communication limitation, where the smartest monkey may only show her knowledge to 5 other monkeys. With the massive system of copper wire we have created that we call the Internet, the smartest human will reach 60% of the population in minutes. It is absolutely insane how integral this external storage of memory is to our progress, and it is the single most influential difference between humans and every other species on the planet.
Or, at least, that's what I think. I guess paintings and mental simulations are cool too.