Would Breaking the Cycle Compromise Our Humanity?

The last few weeks we've been trying to understand what is so unique about humans and what makes us human. We've thrown around several ideas and found additional examples in other areas of the animal kingdom to counter our arguments. Compassion, justice, self-awareness, and the like are exhibited in various forms of life such as a system of justice among primates or empathy exhibited by dogs towards people.

One trend I noticed in this week's readings is the idea of a "cycle of life" and the human appreciation for this cycle. We are aware of our own existence in relation to other creatures, and others are aware of themselves in relation to us. We have millions of people studying all sorts of life cycles of different organisms. What other creature puts so much energy into understanding other creatures?

What if what makes humans unique from other organisms is our ability to take compassion, empathy, self and other awareness, and other traits associated with higher level thinking and channel that into the appreciation and self-appointed importance of a "cycle of life" in species other than ourselves? What if humanity is unique because we find the life cycle of others almost as important as our own?

I also find the cyclic definition of revolution and this idea of a cycle of life interesting. Is our studying these cycles a way for us to break from them and create a biological revolution (such as genetically engineering advanced forms of humanity)? How does this go against our value of the cycles created by nature? Would breaking these cycles destroy a part that makes us human much like it did with the characters in People of Sand and Slag?