How the heck did we get here?!
Thursday, November 8, 2001 by Frogboy | Discussion: WinCustomize Talk
Depending on your religon (or lack there of) you probably have a belief of how we humans got to be on this earth.
What's your view on it?
Here's mine (based on a collection of reading over the years):
About 4 million years ago in East Africa a particular type of ape lived in the jungle. This ape was the prececessor of what we now call humans and chimps. The climate was changing in that part of Africa to be a lot dryer forcing some of these apes to begin leaving the trees. The ones that stayed became chimps. The ones that went out there mostly died.
They died because they couldn't see the lions and other nasties out there. But a handful of them figured out that if you stood on your hind legs that you could see further. Hence those lived and passed their genes on. As time went on, more and more of these surviors were walking up right. This was important not just because they could see further but they could walk further.
This freed their hands up to do other things and most of them were still dying to lions and other nasties. But some of them were bright enough to throw rocks and they lived, to pass on their genes. Repeat this cycle for 3.9 million years and you have homosapiens. Add some other birth defects in that pushed us alon gin having to obtain a variety of food that chimps don't (humans can't produce Vitamin C, we have to consume foods that have it) and only the smarter ones survived.
Around 60,000 years ago these homosapiens, for reasons I don't know, figured out how to communicate verbally. Perhaps it was a mutation (all humans have a birth defect that causes us to be unable to drink and breath at the same time, this allows us to make a lot more sounds than any other mammal - while we're not choking anyway). Once we were able to start communicating like this, ideas could be passed along and within 60,000 years we went from hunting and gathering to farming (around 8000 years ago) to where we are now.
So what's your view?
What's your view on it?
Here's mine (based on a collection of reading over the years):
About 4 million years ago in East Africa a particular type of ape lived in the jungle. This ape was the prececessor of what we now call humans and chimps. The climate was changing in that part of Africa to be a lot dryer forcing some of these apes to begin leaving the trees. The ones that stayed became chimps. The ones that went out there mostly died.
They died because they couldn't see the lions and other nasties out there. But a handful of them figured out that if you stood on your hind legs that you could see further. Hence those lived and passed their genes on. As time went on, more and more of these surviors were walking up right. This was important not just because they could see further but they could walk further.
This freed their hands up to do other things and most of them were still dying to lions and other nasties. But some of them were bright enough to throw rocks and they lived, to pass on their genes. Repeat this cycle for 3.9 million years and you have homosapiens. Add some other birth defects in that pushed us alon gin having to obtain a variety of food that chimps don't (humans can't produce Vitamin C, we have to consume foods that have it) and only the smarter ones survived.
Around 60,000 years ago these homosapiens, for reasons I don't know, figured out how to communicate verbally. Perhaps it was a mutation (all humans have a birth defect that causes us to be unable to drink and breath at the same time, this allows us to make a lot more sounds than any other mammal - while we're not choking anyway). Once we were able to start communicating like this, ideas could be passed along and within 60,000 years we went from hunting and gathering to farming (around 8000 years ago) to where we are now.
So what's your view?
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Hell Dragon
Reply #42 Wednesday, November 14, 2001 11:37 AM
Reply #42 Wednesday, November 14, 2001 11:37 AM
I too believe in evolution very much along the lines of what Frogboy has mentioned...
A lot of people are saying, well how could everything just fall into place so well? and aren't the odds for the exact conditions for life and evolution are just too great to be simply a coincidence?
Well, if you think about it there are billions of billions of stars out there which may or may not have planets around them, and we are finding new planets all the time, so the odds are that at least ONE of those planets would have the right conditions for life, and that planet was ours...
However even though I am an atheist I am also a little spiritual in my own way... I believe in a conciseness or a 'soul' that separates us from most material things in this world, and I think science still has a very long way to go to fully explain the things we see around us.
A lot of people are saying, well how could everything just fall into place so well? and aren't the odds for the exact conditions for life and evolution are just too great to be simply a coincidence?
Well, if you think about it there are billions of billions of stars out there which may or may not have planets around them, and we are finding new planets all the time, so the odds are that at least ONE of those planets would have the right conditions for life, and that planet was ours...
However even though I am an atheist I am also a little spiritual in my own way... I believe in a conciseness or a 'soul' that separates us from most material things in this world, and I think science still has a very long way to go to fully explain the things we see around us.
AJCrowley
Reply #43 Wednesday, November 14, 2001 1:09 PM
Reply #43 Wednesday, November 14, 2001 1:09 PM
If there is a god, and it's reading, I have decided to put together a wishlist of things that I would like to evolve:
1) Earlids. Yes, much like eyelids, but they allow me to block out the problem of noise pollution, which includes "pop music".
2) A brain better suited to multitasking. It's not that I don't listen to people on the phone, I'm just busy, maybe a better brain would help. Many people seem to already posess such a thing. They can usually be observed driving large SUVs, shaving/applying makeup, talking on the cellphone and eating or drinking at the same time.
3) A regenerative nervous system. Nothing could be more useful in the event that I lose a limb.
4) No nipples. They're lovely, really, I just have no use for them.
5) Internal "family jewels". I know they're outside for a reason, but they're a bit of a liability, how about keeping them somewhere safe?
That's about all I can think of that falls into the category of "useful" and not just "cool". Anyone else have any requests?
AJ
1) Earlids. Yes, much like eyelids, but they allow me to block out the problem of noise pollution, which includes "pop music".
2) A brain better suited to multitasking. It's not that I don't listen to people on the phone, I'm just busy, maybe a better brain would help. Many people seem to already posess such a thing. They can usually be observed driving large SUVs, shaving/applying makeup, talking on the cellphone and eating or drinking at the same time.
3) A regenerative nervous system. Nothing could be more useful in the event that I lose a limb.
4) No nipples. They're lovely, really, I just have no use for them.
5) Internal "family jewels". I know they're outside for a reason, but they're a bit of a liability, how about keeping them somewhere safe?
That's about all I can think of that falls into the category of "useful" and not just "cool". Anyone else have any requests?
AJ
feline
Reply #44 Wednesday, November 14, 2001 2:48 PM
Reply #44 Wednesday, November 14, 2001 2:48 PM
* self healing chocolate bars
* self filling bags of donuts
* all the humans to start realising other people are also people, so that they would be nicer to each other
well you asked, and i think all would be very very useful
* self filling bags of donuts
* all the humans to start realising other people are also people, so that they would be nicer to each other
well you asked, and i think all would be very very useful
feline
Reply #45 Wednesday, November 14, 2001 3:00 PM
Reply #45 Wednesday, November 14, 2001 3:00 PM
where is it all going?
if anyone has ever read arthur C Clarks "2001 - a space odecy" (<- that is my third attemp, and its spelling is getting worse *sigh*) will have encountered one interesting take on where "people" may be going long term.
people moving their conciousness into machines, and then eventually into pure energy over a very long time. it does sound like the sort of thing that some of todays technology obsessed humans would love to do.
if anyone has ever read arthur C Clarks "2001 - a space odecy" (<- that is my third attemp, and its spelling is getting worse *sigh*) will have encountered one interesting take on where "people" may be going long term.
people moving their conciousness into machines, and then eventually into pure energy over a very long time. it does sound like the sort of thing that some of todays technology obsessed humans would love to do.
feline
Reply #46 Wednesday, November 14, 2001 3:08 PM
Reply #46 Wednesday, November 14, 2001 3:08 PM
craeonics - I, by the way also think that the Neanderthals didn't go extinct, but merged with the more advanced Homo Sapiens to form the people that generally dwell in Europe. Ever noticed how some people look like cavemen?
feline thinks back, and recalls rumor that crae also lives in europe
i suspect you may already be familiar with the theory that Neanderthals had larger brains and stronger bodies than modern humans.
feline thinks back, and recalls rumor that crae also lives in europe
i suspect you may already be familiar with the theory that Neanderthals had larger brains and stronger bodies than modern humans.
Jafo
Reply #47 Wednesday, November 14, 2001 3:52 PM
Reply #47 Wednesday, November 14, 2001 3:52 PM
"2001 - a space odecy"
Pure poetry, feline....
'odyssey'....
I guess, sometimes, looking up a dictionary to check the spelling is not an option, because you cannot find it because you cannot spell it....Catch 22...
Pure poetry, feline....
'odyssey'....
I guess, sometimes, looking up a dictionary to check the spelling is not an option, because you cannot find it because you cannot spell it....Catch 22...
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Reply #41 Wednesday, November 14, 2001 3:57 AM