Does technology make us Human?

What makes a human a human? When this question is posed to most individuals you will get an answer like opposable thumbs or intelligence. But is that really what makes us human? Primates have opposable thumbs, in fact Koala’s have three fingers and two thumbs so wouldn’t that correlate to a species twice as great as humans. I will be looking at this question of what makes us…us in a relatively philosophical manner.

When someone claims we are who we are because of our intelligence I tend to disagree. We have little concept of how intelligent other creatures are. So it can be safely assumed we are not the most intellectually superior species. ( A case can be made that a majority of humans don’t hold the same mental capacity as some animals but that is a whole other discussion)

The real human power stems from the grasping of the concept of history. Understanding that we are all here the way we are because of a series of random events and the actions of our past relatives.

How about the fact we even ask questions as to why we are here?

A lot of people consider the human brain to be what makes us human. But also consider the possibility of our physical attributes making us human. Imagine placing a human brain inside of an animal, would it result in the creature going crazy from the mass influx of creativity and ideas without the physical means to express them? So it could possibly be narrowed down to something that exists in our brain.

But lets consider a hypothetical situation:

Animal A has a complex spoken and written language, elaborate philosophy, technology, and abstract reasoning.

Human is a homo sapien individual that suffers from anencephaly (a condition where just the basics of the brain form, meaning there is no thought)

So breaking each one down:
Animal A: possesses all of the attributes that many would consider what makes us human.

Human: Possesses only the DNA of a human aka the biological aspects.

Which one of the examples is “human”?

I feel that what the real problem is the question and our means of answering such a question. Humans are a categorization species and we thrive on placing a blanket answer to questions that are more complex. So any answer to “what makes us human?” is not a wrong answer considering the processing of the question in your mind has already essentially answered the question.