The First and Last of Us
Vital definitions
Speciation: (n) The formation of new and distinct species in the course of evolution.
Punctuated Equilibrium: (n) The hypothesis that evolutionary development is marked by isolated episodes of rapid speciation between long periods of little or no change.
Viewing it this way, it sounds like we've become a highly evolved, highly socialized hominid. It would seem that the individualized mind is subdued by this emergent governing superstructure; that Karl Marx was not far off assuming we only socially relate when it comes to material economics. That we've developed into a virtual hive-mind, and are carrying out our daily lives drone-like and numb.
Because we are so highly social, we take these developments for granted. Functioning within all this industry and institutionalization is a creative, emotional and dreaming animal - one that never ceased to be conscious of its creations, and its place in the world. And as we realize that, though our awakening intelligence and global colonization has ballooned us to nearly 7 billion in mass in 2013 CE, our mastery of our place in nature has not divorced us from her reach, nor her mercy. That, in order to confront the current anxious social and climate exigencies, we must evolve more rapid than any other time in our evolutionary history.
But, Homo Techne, this is the human career.
For 7 million years, we have been consistently confronted with climate change. In fact, quite frequently - every 26 thousand years or so due to the precession of equinoxes. Precession is a change in the orientation of the axis of our rotating/revolving Earth.
For 7 million years, since Sahelanthropus Tchadensis (our earliest know hominid ancestor, discovered in Chad in 2001), climate has changed globally due to this variations in the Earth's orbit. And just as now, as it has been all throughout our human existence, these astronomical variations affected the local environments where our ancestors existed. And thereby, our evolution - as we have never, and can never, be divorced from our environment.
We are the nature we believe we've conquered. Subject to it.
I'm certain you were taught our evolution was from a rain forest environment suddenly and climatically disrupted into becoming grasslands - forcing us into an upright hominid. In Africa, 6-7 million years ago (mya), isotope samples of fossilized plants prove that both wet lowlands and rain forests co-existed simultaneously. No abrupt changes, just forests of varying kinds, and no grassland savannas - nothing outside of the trends of the procession of equinoxes. Sahelanthropus Tchadensis walked upright, and still, lived in trees. Why would an ape need to walk upright when living in trees?
Here's where the procession may cause statistically significant environmental change. It's called the Milankovitch Cycle: Variations in eccentricity of the precession, and axial tilt, determines climatic patterns on Earth by controlling the amount of sunlight hitting at any given point. To put it mildly, from circular to oval-like orbiting.
Every 23-26 thousand years (ky), when eccentricity in the Milankovitch cycle is high (high orbital variation affects the Monsoon System), rainfall is higher, and lakes in regions where our hominid ancestors existed swelled to tremendous sizes. At one point, a large lake stretched several hundred miles across the Great Rift Valley itself - until recently believed to be the cradle of our branch of the hominid line. As abruptly as these lake growths occurred, after lasting 5-10 ky, they terminated just as rapidly - sometimes, completely drying out between cycles.
This would alter the landscape and cause the disruption, and subsequent recombination, of large communities of animals, including our human ancestors. Now, if their home forest is affected negatively - Sahelanthropus Tchadensis would be forced to search the landscape for new forest greens, or disrupted water sources, crossing massive lowlands with predators to reach them. Sentinel behavior is when one stands guard for predators and gives warning. Chimpanzees, orangutans, bonobos, and gorillas - the other great apes aside from humans - stand upright to peer through and over vegetation on lookout.
Climate change forced us upright. It has always shaped our intelligence, our evolution and, most importantly, our technology. Always a shake-up, and always a new pattern thereafter. Perfect for speciation.
And so it is today....a punctuated equilibrium.
Rest easy.
Because we are so highly social, we take these developments for granted. Functioning within all this industry and institutionalization is a creative, emotional and dreaming animal - one that never ceased to be conscious of its creations, and its place in the world. And as we realize that, though our awakening intelligence and global colonization has ballooned us to nearly 7 billion in mass in 2013 CE, our mastery of our place in nature has not divorced us from her reach, nor her mercy. That, in order to confront the current anxious social and climate exigencies, we must evolve more rapid than any other time in our evolutionary history.
But, Homo Techne, this is the human career.
For 7 million years, we have been consistently confronted with climate change. In fact, quite frequently - every 26 thousand years or so due to the precession of equinoxes. Precession is a change in the orientation of the axis of our rotating/revolving Earth.
We are the nature we believe we've conquered. Subject to it.
I'm certain you were taught our evolution was from a rain forest environment suddenly and climatically disrupted into becoming grasslands - forcing us into an upright hominid. In Africa, 6-7 million years ago (mya), isotope samples of fossilized plants prove that both wet lowlands and rain forests co-existed simultaneously. No abrupt changes, just forests of varying kinds, and no grassland savannas - nothing outside of the trends of the procession of equinoxes. Sahelanthropus Tchadensis walked upright, and still, lived in trees. Why would an ape need to walk upright when living in trees?
Here's where the procession may cause statistically significant environmental change. It's called the Milankovitch Cycle: Variations in eccentricity of the precession, and axial tilt, determines climatic patterns on Earth by controlling the amount of sunlight hitting at any given point. To put it mildly, from circular to oval-like orbiting.
Every 23-26 thousand years (ky), when eccentricity in the Milankovitch cycle is high (high orbital variation affects the Monsoon System), rainfall is higher, and lakes in regions where our hominid ancestors existed swelled to tremendous sizes. At one point, a large lake stretched several hundred miles across the Great Rift Valley itself - until recently believed to be the cradle of our branch of the hominid line. As abruptly as these lake growths occurred, after lasting 5-10 ky, they terminated just as rapidly - sometimes, completely drying out between cycles.
This would alter the landscape and cause the disruption, and subsequent recombination, of large communities of animals, including our human ancestors. Now, if their home forest is affected negatively - Sahelanthropus Tchadensis would be forced to search the landscape for new forest greens, or disrupted water sources, crossing massive lowlands with predators to reach them. Sentinel behavior is when one stands guard for predators and gives warning. Chimpanzees, orangutans, bonobos, and gorillas - the other great apes aside from humans - stand upright to peer through and over vegetation on lookout.
Climate change forced us upright. It has always shaped our intelligence, our evolution and, most importantly, our technology. Always a shake-up, and always a new pattern thereafter. Perfect for speciation.
And so it is today....a punctuated equilibrium.
Rest easy.
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