h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

1)How close is human nature to the nature of an animal?

2)What aspects of human nature are genetic, and what aspects are learned?

3)What does consciousness mean?

4)Could we learn how to speak to animals, or could we teach animals to speak to humans?

no 1, this question answers quite a bit simply by being asked.
Isnt it better to suggest that we are all animals in the first place.
Strip any person of what makes them human and the connectiion is complete.
What makes us different is very simple, out intellect - thats it.

No 2 like any animal much of our behaviour is genetic; that is certain things we do, all individuals from our racial background will do, no matter what our upbringing.
Like the way we react to cold and heat, pressure from others,contact with others, danger,art, and so on are often a product of our genetic heritage rather than where we went to school or how our parents interreacted with us.
This could be partly why some people are much better at academic subjects than others.
For instance a Kannok will have a unprecedented mechanical ability, this could be partly because he has to remember extreme detail in his surroundings otherwise he could die. This comes over in the ability to take an engine to bits and to be able to reassemble it from memory. If he programmed himself correctly he would be good academicaly too, but put him in a classroom for 6 hours a day, and he will probably fail miserably.

no 3 is the one thing which animals are supposed to lack whilst humans dont.
All those human emotions we value so highly are not supposed to exist in the animal kingdom.

no 4 Could we learn how to speak to animals, or could we teach animals to speak to humans?
What a wonderfully naieve question.
Why should animals need to speak when they have other means of communication.
When 2 adults commucate there are something like 7/900 signals passed per minute - that is communication, why should it need words.
Animals pass signals just the same, the only difference is they are not using abstract words because they are not built that way, and this is what makes humans different from the rest of the animal world.
Trying to give human character to animals is a mistake because then you see animals as inferior.
The simple fact is that the animals we see around us are highly evolved to fit the niche in which they sit. You can communicate with an animal easily, just dont try to do it as a human nor expect them to behave as one because they are not.
To go further, we celebrate the simularities we have with animals and other humans, prehaps its is time we did the reverse, after all we have a great deal to learn not only from nature but from each other.