Another intellectual difference between human and non-human beings: knowledge / truth as an end in itself

All species of non-human living beings need to have minimal knowledge about what they do (morality) and where they live in order to survive. For them, knowledge is fundamentally a means for survival / adaptation. For the human being, ideally, knowledge, besides having this utility, is also conceived as an END in itself, because we can recognize truths or knowledge that, a priori, has no direct use for our survival, even on the contrary because they can be quite disheartening, for example, that we are going to die one day and that there is no life after death. Only the human being who is capable of knowing that everything he does, in terms of personal interest, will be 'in vain'. That is, we spend a life protecting ourselves from death knowing that it awaits us. Even if, with the advance of science, if we managed to circumvent finitude, life will still not have the meaning that most of us would like it to have, a meaning beyond itself, metaphysical and [absolutely] "comforting". Despite this cost, the objective search for truth can also be very useful in maximizing one's own survival.