What does it take to be human?
With everything that makes up a human, there is a subjective and an objective side. The objective part considers that all human beings are biologically classified as homo sapien primates of the animal kingdom with genes composed of 46 chromosomes in each cell.
But that’s not the total picture.
Humans have developed to a point where simply surviving as reproducing organisms would not be enough – living as a human is more complex than just being born human. Being human comes with the ability to think, and throughout history, this has led to the need to acquire an identity. That is the crucial human characteristic that allowed for the unique evolution of our species.
Identities can be physically or ideologically shared between humans. The key for sharing an identity with another human is communication, which allows human interaction of thought, and commonality, which allows a connection to be found. Owning an identity means having the emotional intelligence to know who you are as a person in society; this includes personality, preference and self expression.
The choices made along the path of life shape people’s identity, which includes your perceptions of you and others’ perceptions of you. Thinking and pondering about the past, present and future is something so entirely human, and is the basis for all of what was discussed in the previous paragraph. If any of the above distinguishing factors of humanity were simply abolished, or non-existent, then the concept of humanity ceases to be a thing.
Without the subjectivity that comes with how humans are, not even the objective definition of human existence could have been formed.