Tuesday, December 13, 2011

Primates, Extinct Hominids, Neanderthals, Homo Sapiens and Our Fate (Rant) by Edwin Young

OK, what if each successive species in the tree of evolution maintains some of the DNA of those that preceded? What if Neanderthals and other hominids did interbreed with early Homo sapiens? What if Bonobos share much common DNA with Chimps? The skeletal structure, anatomy, and behavior, especially sexual behavior and estrus or reproductive cycle of Bonobos is the most similar to ours of all Apes. Interbreeding of many hominids, as well as other human sub species, inheritance of past specie’s DNA lower on the evolutionary tree, plus the predominant surviving human species maintaining genes from the dwindling population of Neanderthals, all of these hypothesized factors may contribute to the vast variety of races and anatomical patterns and account for a variegated substrate of genetically determined proclivities.

The resulting Homo Sapiens have an enormous capacity for adaptability to differing environments but also an enormous flexibility or malleability of behavior. Civilizations that eventually evolved were probably influenced by these genetically determined proclivities but, due to the malleability of our species, civilizations evolved arbitrarily within those constraints. The outcome of our current configuration of civilizations, and their diversity, has nothing sacred about it. It has not been designed by any superior, wise, visionary, or self-modifying intelligence. It has merely plummeted along by rivalries between our basest instincts and mere idiotic chance. If we, as a globally dominant species were to accept this hypothesis, take stock of where we are and what disastrous fate we may careening toward and decide to completely redesign the global civilization, it may not be too late to forestall another global extinction through our own unwitting suicide.

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