We don’t capitalize “human” because as of now there are no other intelligent species we have relationships with on that level; there’s no need to add that level of “respect” to the word. But if we did make first contact with an intelligent alien species, I wouldn’t be surprised if cultural conventions like whether or not to capitalize the names of sentient species became a thing.
I’m not sure I see why we’d do that when we don’t already draw the distinction that way between ourselves and other animals. The only way I see “Human” as a proper noun in English is if we wind up uniting under “the Human Federation” or something like that and it specifically becomes the demonym of the polity we belong to
We don’t capitalize “human” because as of now there are no other intelligent species we have relationships with on that level; there’s no need to add that level of “respect” to the word. But if we did make first contact with an intelligent alien species, I wouldn’t be surprised if cultural conventions like whether or not to capitalize the names of sentient species became a thing.
I’m not sure I see why we’d do that when we don’t already draw the distinction that way between ourselves and other animals. The only way I see “Human” as a proper noun in English is if we wind up uniting under “the Human Federation” or something like that and it specifically becomes the demonym of the polity we belong to