There is a lot of speculation about what separates us from the rest of the animal kingdom. They used to say it was our ability to use tools, but I had a dog who used a stick as a lever to snap the boards in the fence. There’s a marvelous video of a crow using tools to get food. Some used to say it was language, but the more we learn of animals, the more we learn about their languages and realize that we made assumptions because we did not speak their language. There are those who say it is our consciousness that we will die that makes us human, but can someone see animals mourning and presume they have no sense of their own mortality? Others say it is how well we cooperate, but will we ever cooperate as well as bees and ants? Anyone who thinks about the size of an elephant or whale brain knows it cannot be brain size. Scientists spend a lot of time on this question and are coming to the conclusion it’s not just one thing that makes us human, but it is all about how we think. One of the key differences is our ability to imagine multiple scenarios,  to build complex imagined constructions. Daydreams are part of this – not dreams – but the conscious self-aware wonder of daydreams.
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