Humankind, Subsistence, Communication

The production of the means of subsistence, which, according to Marx, is what distinguishes Humankind from other species, might have begun as a compensation for a lack of what others possess, e. g. a knife for claws, but has developed into capacities that far surpass those grounded in natural attributes.  The same can be said for the means of communication, i. e. two humans can do what two butterflies, presumably, cannot--communicate virtually instantaneously while one is at the Greenwich Meridian, and the other at the International Date Line.  Since progress in the means to communicate continues even as the means to subsistence is fully successful, it might be the production of the former, not that of the latter, that distinguishes Humankind from its co-inhabitants of the planet.