Homo Sapiens

All people today are classified as Homo Sapiens. Our species of humans first began to evolve somewhen between 200 to 300 thousand years ago. It is now clear that early Homo sapiens, or modern humans, did not come after the Neanderthals but were their contemporaries. However, it is likely that both modern humans and Neanderthals descended from Homo heidelbergensis.

200 thousand years? Recently discovered bones in a Moroccan mine thought to be up to 350 thousand years old are now believed to represent the earliest known Homo sapiens fossils.

Perhaps it’s time for a further evolutionary step: Why we’re closer than ever to a timeline for human evolution.

Origins & Materials

Evolution

Human DNA

Our 8 Senses

Sense & Nonsense

Aaaaaaah! (Trailer) – by Steve Oram

I’m just glad Homo Sapiens has not rested evolving at the stage as shown in Aaaaaaaah!, a 2015 British horror comedy film containing no dialogue, with the cast communicating entirely in animalistic grunts. But then again, if we had evolved like that, we would not have anything else to compare with, would we?

The film Aaaaaaaah! was shot over two weeks during the summer of 2014. The critical reception has been positive, with review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes giving it a rating of 79% based on 14 reviews. The film went on to receive a British Independent Film Awards Nomination, as well as a special jury mention at Cleveland International Film Festival.

Even as Homo Sapiens is today, we take it for granted, normal and consider it a logic outcome that has succeeded previous development stages. But where is it going from here? How much longer could one safely state that Michelangelo’s David, representing the human species, was on the top of the food chain and entitled to behave as if he was the ruler of the universe?

“Human” – by Rag’n’Bone Man

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) is a milestone document in the history of human rights. Drafted by representatives with different legal and cultural backgrounds from all regions of the world, the Declaration was proclaimed by the United Nations General Assembly in Paris on 10 December 1948 (General Assembly resolution 217 A) as a common standard of achievements for all peoples and all nations. It sets out, for the first time, fundamental human rights to be universally protected and it has been translated into over 500 languages.

The Future Of Humanity

Dr. Yuval Noah Harari is an Israeli historian and a tenured professor in the Department of History at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem as well as author of international bestsellers.

He explains how revolutions in tech and society will transform our bodies and minds.

Can machines ever have consciousness? Is there an economic value in it? Does organic life any life over inorganic, artificial life? Dr Yuval Noah Harari answers questions from the audience following his talk.

The Future of Humanity – with Yuval Noah Harari

World Population

Overpopulation

In 2013, Sir David Attenborough said if humans did not control population, the natural world would and in 2018, he stated in an interview with the BBC’s Newsnight, that slowing population growth is key to saving the planet.

By 2025, World Population will probably be over 8 billion people. Around 2040, it could hit 9 billion and by 2100, it could reach a massive 11 billion people.

But don’t panic, there’s a limit says Prof. Hans Rosling

“I have noticed even people who claim everything is predestined, and that we can do nothing to change it, look before they cross the road.”
– Stephen Hawking

Later In The Universe

“Humans, taxonomically referred to as Homo Sapiens were the galaxy’s most numerous and politically dominant sentient species with millions of major and minor colonies galaxywide.

Believed to have originated on The Earth they could later be found anywhere, engaged in many different pursuits: spacers, mercenaries, smugglers, merchants, soldiers, assassins, farmers, crime lords, laborers, slaves, slavers, and many others.

Since Humans were the most common sentient species, they were often considered to be a standard or average to which the biology, psychology, and culture of other species were compared.”

The intersection of Homo sapiens and the concept of extraterrestrials has long fascinated both the scientific community and the public imagination. Scientific American explores the idea that humans, with our unique genetic makeup and profound impact on the planet, may seem like aliens on a geological timescale. This perspective is echoed by NBC News, which discusses the rarity of terrestrial-style biology and the possibility that Earth might be one of the earliest planets to support life.

The debate extends to whether extraterrestrial intelligence exists and, if so, why we have not yet encountered it. Some theories suggest that extraterrestrials may view Homo Sapiens as too primitive or uninteresting, leading them to avoid contact. Others propose that humans themselves are the real ‘ancient aliens’, given the uniqueness of our species and the coevolution with our externalized information, or ‘dataome’ (all the non-genetic data we carry internally and externally – named by analogy data with the genome). These discussions underscore the complexity of life and intelligence in the universe and our ongoing quest to understand our place within it.