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I keep thinking about it, but everything I have come up with also occurs in the animal kingdom. Art, language, tools, emotions, music, building on former knowledge (my cat did this!), even learning from one another. Yet the one thing I could think of that we, as of yet, have no proof with any other creature is the belief of the divine. Our understanding of God, in any form you wish to give her, is what I believe makes us truly unique.

–Sara Schulz
Lake Geneva, WI

We all became human when we no longer were hairy little beings swinging from trees and throwing poo at each other, now we are naked beings walking upright throwing bombs and oppression; thankfully most of us have evolved further and no longer have this primal trait… my human spark is being a good father, friend, brother and companion to my beings in this world.

–Ian Smit
Worthington, OH

I’m sure curiosity, the unmoved mover inside us all, is the basic human spark. From the “hot stove” to the first kiss, it’s what leads to pain, and pleasure then peace and suffering. In humans discovery is predicated by curiosity but as a paradox of truth it’s our universal child-like wonder that’s waiting to be discovered as we’re born. So then from there: fire, the wheel, language, the Earth’s horizon, space, love, life, and death. The monolith in Stanley Kubrick’s Space Odyssey: 2001 is a symbol for our common internal muse of basic curiosity. It brings us each into existence and somehow as it begins to die, we begin to die. Beyond that, over time, curiosity has taken our human race into the halls of science, religion, and philosophy. It’s the tiny living spark at the near end of a long waiting fuse.

–Brad Burkley
Diwaniya, Iraq

What makes us human is our ability to care for one another. We anthropomorphize nature and deify it but compassion is not a physical law but a human construction. There are not many vegan Tigers that fight for equal rights and fair wages. Human nature is your Aunt Katrina that bakes you chocolate cookies. Physical nature that other Katrina, merciless hurricane. I choose Aunt Katrina.

–Chris Hellstrom
Staten Island, NY

What makes us human is our delusion of superiority amongst all the living beings in this planet we called Earth.

–Syntia A.
Phoenix, AZ

In the quest to discover the human spark, researchers often rely on volunteers who let them investigate their behavior, inclinations, and abilities. Average, everyday people… just like you!

A couple of labs at Harvard University have created a Web site called Test My Brain, where the public can participate in online experiments.  Find out how good your “gut number sense” is or how skilled you are at recognizing faces — and contribute to the advance of science at the same time!

Visit Test My Brain

Sound Recordist John Garrett and Director/DP Larry Engel size up shooting conditions.

The day we had scheduled to film with Harvard University’s Dan Gilbert dawned beautiful – but frigid! If we were planning to shoot in a lab or office, that wouldn’t really matter, but the idea was to film Alan Alda and Dan in conversation outside. We needed a compelling discussion because their talk focused on a topic that was crucial to our Human Spark story, but we also wanted an exciting location that added some visual flair to the film and subtly illustrated the breadth of our human abilities.

Producer Graham Chedd thought a chat en plein air would add the visual variation we needed and be a big improvement over the “two-guys-sitting-on-a-couch”-type shot that is too often the easy default. The goal was to position Alan and Dan in the middle of a footbridge that spans the Charles River between Boston and Cambridge. Luckily they were both very good sports and we had gloves!

Do you know who Dan is? If you don’t know him from his book Stumbling on Happiness [more info at Wikipedia], perhaps you saw his quote on a Starbucks coffee cup:

“The human brain is the only object in the known universe that can predict its own future and tell its own fortune. The fact that we can make disastrous decisions even as we foresee their consequences is the great, unsolved mystery of human behavior. When you hold your fate in your hands, why would you ever make a fist?”

In this video Dan talks about distilling his work down to a 59-word message – an ability closely tied to the Human Spark.

I’ll show you mine if you show me yours. Our Sparks, that is…

For the past few years, Alan Alda and our production team have been traveling the world, speaking to experts who have shared their visions about what make humans unique from all other animals. Different experts have different views, and they don’t all necessarily agree, but each new interview we’ve done has provided a little bit more insight into the evolutionary and neurological abilities that only we have.

You’ll see all this insight in the programs and the web-only video on the Human Spark site, but we’re also hoping that you’ll tell us what being human means to you. Drawings, photos, videos or text are all welcome, and we’re hoping for some really thoughtful and interesting responses. Do our brains make us human? Our language? Our imaginations or our belief? Visit the Share Your Spark submission page to get started.

Your responses will be posted on the web site and a selection of the best will appear on-screen when the series airs. For kicks, I’ll start things off with a Haiku:

Chimps show a few signs
Neanderthals never did
Insight defines us

- Jared Lipworth
Executive Producer, The Human Spark