On how homo sapiens isn’t too sapiens, after all
May 2007.
It’s one of those beautiful spring afternoons featuring soft light, a warm breeze and the promise of a glorious summer hiding in plain sight. But instead of basking in the sun, I’m indoors, tucked away in the university library, my nose buried in a book, reading up for an exam. The topic? The fascinating research of Antonio Damasio.
Damasio, a neuroscientist, studied patients with damage to a small, specific part of the brain, called the ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC). Nestled within the folds of our frontal lobes, the vmPFC is essential in processing emotions.
Following damage to his vmPFC, Elliot, one of the patients, struggled to make even simple choices —whether to wear a blue or a red tie, whether to sign a contract or not — despite still having access to perfect logic and reasoning skills. He could analyze situations with clarity and precision but was paralyzed by indecision, as if the very essence of choice had slipped through his fingers, leaving him with a sea of endless, but equally unappealing possibilities.
I’m intrigued, and a little befuddled.
The implications were astonishing:
Without emotions, can we no longer make “rational” decisions?
What makes us human?
As humans, we have long prided ourselves on our capacity for rational thought. We’ve christened ourselves, homo sapiens. Sapiens, meaning wise, discerning, astute. A self-portrait of the human as the thinker, the logical problem-solver.
But what if this is not the whole story?
What if it’s not even true?
As humankind, we’ve given ourselves this title that conjures images of a species enlightened by logic, navigating the world, and lately, the cosmos as well, with the compass of our powerful intellect. From the philosophers of ancient Greece to the enlighteners of the 18th century, reason and intellectual exploration were upheld as the very beacons of progress and civilization. Take the discovery of electricity, the decoding of the human genome, or the moon landing (a culmination of years of scientific efforts).
We’ve long held the belief that, in stark contrast to our fellow earthly inhabitants, we navigate our lives through a landscape of logical decisions and conscious thought.
But damage a teeny tiny part of our brains that’s responsible for emotions (you know, the ones we often seek to suppress or ignore), and here we are, unable to choose between a blue and a red tie.
I marvelled at the irony.
So, perhaps we aren’t as sapiens as we like to, ahem, think?
Is reason merely a mirage, a pretense of logic, while we are otherwise swimming in and running our lives based on an ocean of instincts, impulses and emotions?
Choosing a career, a life partner, deciding if to have children or not - I’d argue all of these vastly important life decisions are rather emotional.
When I think of my own life—how often have I made decisions that seemed rational at the time, only to later realize they were driven by an undercurrent of emotion?
More times than I’d care to admit. Like that time I move to Baku, Azerbaijan for an interesting job opportunity. I was, in fact, fed up with the commute in London, and simply curious about that part of the world.
Marketing, a field finely attuned to “customer behaviour”, exploits this reality daily. Rolex doesn't sell timepieces—they sell legacy, precision, the very essence of time itself, belonging to an exclusive group you really want to belong to. Chanel doesn’t sell perfumes, it whispers the allure of timeless elegance.
These brands (and many others) tap heavily into the emotional implications that truly drive our choices.
Then maybe, just maybe we, in fact, feel first and rationalize after - using logic to justify our emotional choices.
If our decisions are not as rational as we believe, what does that say about the essence of human nature?
What’s our real superpower, then?
Why, although we are physically weaker than other species, we have no claws, scary sabre-like teeth, no fur, and rather delicate, useless skin, we’ve come to “run the world”?
Historian Yuval Noah Harari (yes, I know he’s getting cancelled these days) argues that it is our ability to create, disseminate, agree on, and believe in “shared fictions”, in stories (like religions, nations, money and economic systems) that bind us and allow us to cooperate in large numbers. Take the concept of money, for example—a piece of paper or a number on a screen that we collectively agree holds value. It’s a fiction, but a powerful one that drives entire economies and makes or breaks companies, relationships, lives.
So, it is our ability to feel, empathize, and connect on an emotional level that propelled us to the top of the social food chain. The stories that our grandmas lulled us to sleep with make her quintessentially human - or superhuman if I think of mine 😊
This is not to say that reason has no place in the human experience.
It is an important tool, one that has allowed us to build civilizations, cure diseases, and reach (quite literally) for the stars. But it is not our sole defining feature. Perhaps our true superpower lies in the delicate dance between reason and emotion, between the stories we craft and the feelings that give them life.
Homo paradoxicus
To me, this reflection was a strong reminder of our complexity as a species. We are not just homo sapiens, the wise, the judicious; we are also beings of passion, storytelling, and shared dreams.
Damasio’s research shattered the long-held belief that decisions are purely rational processes, independent of the emotions we often consider irrational or impulsive. It revealed that emotions are integral to our decision-making, serving as vital signals—what he called "somatic markers"—that guide us through life’s many choices. Discussed in his seminal book Descartes' Error: Emotion, Reason, and the Human Brain, these findings paint a picture of human cognition that was far less about cold logic and far more about the intricate dance between thought and feeling.
As I sat in the dusty, charming old library, the book resting heavily in my hands, the spring breeze gently knocking at the window, I realized:
Perhaps, we’re not homo sapiens but homo paradoxicus—a species that prides itself on reason, yet is deeply driven by emotion. Or homo fabulatus – highlighting our love of - and incredible capacity- for storytelling and shared fictions that make and break the world as we know it.
As AI takes over menial tasks, and gets real’ good at reasoning (crunching way more data than we could ever dream of in order to support one logical, “rational” conclusion or another), I can’t help but think that the key to future-proofing ourselves and thriving in the future lies in the wisdom of embracing all sides of our nature:
I think, feel, and tell stories, therefore I am.
Thanking
, and for their excellent input on this reflection.