With the name of our species: Homo Sapiens, Thinking Man. Supposedly this separates us from the other animals.

Yes, some of us think. Indeed they are famous for it. But to say our species thinks, well, I'm not sure that's true.

Most of us aren't really much different from the computer I'm typing this on. We have data fed into us along with programming instructions on when to regurgitate that data but, like my computer, we often don't think about it.

So I think we should come up with a new name for our species. My Latin kind of sucks so some of the following may suck as well.

I've often thought Homo Instrumenta, Tool Using Man, would be a better name. If there's one thing that differentiates us from animals it's our ability to make and use tools. We started off simple with flint knives and axes and now we've got cars, planes, computers, cell phones and all kinds of other tools. Plus we've created abstract tools like government, bureaucracy, corporations and money.

The problem is that tools require a certain amount of thought to use carefully and wisely. Since we don't think as much as we believe we do we get into a lot of trouble with our tools.

Perhaps if we recognized we were tool using animals we might make more of an effort to think about what we're doing with our tools.

Another name for our species that might be appropriate is Homo Ludens, Game Playing Man. All humans seem to be fond of and spend a lot of effort playing  games. Once again we started simply with seeing who could throw things the farthest and who could run the fastest. Now we've got poker, go, chess, Risk, Diplomacy, Dungeons and Dragons and Vampire: The Masquerade. Plus all the physical games such as football, baseball, hockey, rugby and lots of others.

Now there are problems involved with games as well.

One is when we take a serious activity like politics or economics and make a game out of it. "He who has the most toys wins!" and all that. Unlike actual games a serious activity reduced to a game hurts people. Bankrupting people in Monopoly is allowable. Bankrupting them in life isn't.

Another is when we take a frivolous game and make it serious. Soccer riots aren't fun. Hell, a war was fought over a soccer game once.

I'm thinking that if we believed ourselves to be game playing animals we might recognize when we're playing games and when we're serious.

Finally I sometimes think the best name for us would be Homo Superbia, Prideful Man. Because if there is one thing we humans are is prideful.

We always believe we have the best ideas, belong to the best group, are the strongest or smartest or God's; Allah to Zeus; chosen people.

The problem is that pride wasn't made a Deadly Sin because it sounded cool.

Just some random blathering from me today. See if you can come up with a better name for our species.