Homo Sapiens are not the first hominins to dwell on planet earth and might not be the last. What happened to homo erectus and homo species that existed before homo sapiens? did they metamorphose into another homo specie after thousands of years or went into extinction?
The theory and story of human evolution is a complex study which one might not fully assimilate in his life time. The questions to what happened to other human species like homo erectus, homo abilis, homo floresiensis, homo neanderthals and others that were also intelligent seems ambiguous to answer; did they go into extinction or successively metamorphosed to the surviving homo sapiens.
Even the different images of these "nowhere to be found" human species shown in books and internet are questionable; who took the image of those "no-longer in existence" species and with which equipment did the person shot the image? The first practical camera was invented in 1816 while these species went into extinction thousands of years ago. So their bodies must have decayed and their bones before the invention of camera. So the images and skulls scientists shows as extincted human species what exactly are they?_ This is a philosophical reasoning which might be valid
Also a school of religion which believes that God created man(what science called homo sapiens) in His own image and that there is nothing like evolution. That is to say that the physical feature of man has never changed from how it used to be since ever man was created.
This two schools of thought with different reasoning still contribute in making the evolution theory or story more complex to understand
license: CC by SA 3.0 || source: wikimedia
Human evolution has played a vital role in the history of human, science records that the evolution has helped in the development of humans who are capable of probably adapting to any situation irrespective of how complex it is. This feature has granted homo sapiens the capacity to continue living on earth in accordance with Charles Darwin theory of evolution which is simply summarized as "survival of the fittest"
However, before the evolution of homo sapiens, there existed other hominins such as homo erectus, homo abilis, homo rudolfensis and other hominins which are also intelligent and could use their brain(intelligence) to harness natural resources into weapons . Notwithstanding, their intelligence could not help them to survive perpetually; unfortunately, these human species went into extinction after living for thousands of years
Would Intelligence Grant Homo Sapiens An Immortal Existence?
If intelligence could not help in the eternal survival of different species of human, do you think the intelligence of the present homo sapiens can make her exist forever? (of course, in my opinion, it is certainly "no" but probably yes to you).Science has claimed that the present specie of human"homo sapiens" are more intelligent than previous species, this science acclaimed "super intelligence" of homo sapiens over other hominins is a concrete theory which has no convincing visible archaeological evidence; hence, might be true or false.
Scientists compared the homo sapiens of today with other hominins of paleolithic period and concluded that the former is more intelligent. But logically, that's a wrong comparison; to compare two things, time of existence must be considered. We cannot compare the intelligence of homo sapiens living on this earth today with the same specie(homo sapiens) that existed one thousand years ago and expect a valid result. Of-course, the former would be more intelligent. So to get a valid truthful result about which human specie is more intelligent than the other, we(scientists) have to go back in time, gather the most intelligent from different human species that existed in the same era, which after we can compare. As some homo sapiens are more intelligent than other, so likewise, some hominins in the same class of specie are more intelligent than the other. So determining absolutely which human specie is most intelligent is such a complex tax if not impossible to handle
license: CC by SA 3.0 || Source: Wikimedia
A study shows that homo neanderthals has larger brains than the modern homo sapiens,source larger brains imply more intelligence, so homo neanderthals could be more intelligent than homo sapiens of the palaeolithic era. Interestingly archaeological evidence has it that homo neanderthals taught the primitive homo sapiens how to use tools. Unfortunately, homo sapiens at a time started hunting and eating homo neanderthals because they look more like animal(chimpanzee), this led to her extinction. Homo sapiens did not win the battle because they are stronger or more intelligent, but because they are much more in number; one man cannot beat off one chimpanzee(homo neanderthals socially behave like a chimpanzee) but four hundred(400) men can easily beat one chimpanzee. So, homo sapiens stayed together as colony, procreates in a higher rate while homo neanderthals did not stay in colony(dispersed) and had low procreation rate. This fact helped homo sapiens send homo neanderthals into extinction.
However, let's take the scientific assumption that human sapiens are more intelligent that other hominins, does that grant our specie immortal existence on earth? of-course no. This high intelligence of the modern man is getting this generation mentally lazy. Artificial memories like SD card and flash drive have made the present human mentally lazy that he could not store information in his memory and this mental laziness would continue to be on the rise as long as technology keeps advancing. In addition to these, this intelligence of homo sapiens introduced the evolution of technology which developed some "work made easier" tool which made the present human almost physically incapacitated to do what he could have done with his natural strength. Some humans cannot even count few dollars without depending on counting machine, our hands are becoming so lazy just like our brains. Believe it, a time would come when we would not even need push the buttons of the keyboard in our computers to type what is in our mind; it would be" once we think it in our mind" it would appear on the screen of our computer, this will even render homo sapiens more lazier than "say ok to google" has rendered us. All these show of intelligence would actually make homo sapiens lazy; and of-course, any specie that gets lazy, legally signs her letter of extinction. This is what happened to our predecessor specie homo erectus.
licenseCC by SA 2.5 Source: Wikimedia
Undoubtedly, research has proved that homo erectus were lazy and the evidence is there: the way the homo erectus made their tools in stone age. Excavations by archaeologists in 2014 showed that the tools homo erectus made were of very low quality compared to the tools other species made and even the pattern homo erectus used in making tools was so unprofessionalref,. Amidst the quality stones available in their environment, the choose the one of low quality. Excavators ascertained that there existed quality rocks in small hills just a short distance from homo erectus camp, but they would not trek to the hill because of laziness. The would rather use the low quality stones that rolled off the hill due to wind. Notwithstanding their long dwelling in their camp, they never for one day toured these hills of high quality stones, this is evident on the rocks on the small hills; there was no sing of quarrying in the rocks or an artifact on the hills.
Home erectus were so lazy that even when climate condition was changing, they keep on relying on the same pattern of doing things and the same low quality tools. This cause them unable to adapt to the climatic change and hence keep dying gradually until they were no more in existence.
Similary, the high intelligence of the present man has helped him into developing devices that renders humans lazy both physically and mentally ( a time would come when students would need calculator to solve calculation as simple as"1+1"). This might be the beginning of an embrace to extinction.
Aliens Invasion Of The Earth Might Cause The Extinction Of Homo Sapiens
scientist has long ago discovered that their are tendency of other beings existing in other planets rather than the earth, NASA stipulated that aliens exist in Mars. Perhaps the way we tour and monitor other planets is the same way these beings in other planets monitor the earth, we on earth don't know if they are monitoring us and similar, they don't know we homo sapiens are monitoring their planets through telescope; although, we have not seen the colony of these aliens in other planets. Elon Musk who in my own view, is among the world most intelligent men alive today, in an interview, speculated that their might be super intelligent alien observing us and we are even oblivious of itWhat if these aliens on another planet discovers that the earth possesses a more comfortable environment suitable for life than their present planet? Would this make them invade the earth violently?
There are chances that the above would happen, these aliens might even be developing transportation means that would convey them to the earth in mass. And this could lead to war, perhaps the world war III Albert Einstein talked of.
Homo sapiens has developed weapons capable of killing people in mass, who knows if these aliens have developed a more deadly weapon capable of terminating the present human race. What if they could in technologically hijack the control of our weapons and use it against us? Today's weapon is digitally controlled and hacking is possible. These aliens might be super intelligent compared to homo sapiens
licenseCC by SA 4.0 Source: Wikimedia
However, let's assume the deadliness of our weapons and that of the aliens are the same. Then they invade the earth in mass, we and these aliens started war against each other. Then our weapons in our arsenal and the weapons in their own arsenal eventually get exhausted; what would happen? Of-course the few beings left among the aliens and homo sapiens would start fighting with stones, sticks and bare hands which probably is the world war III Albert Einstein stipulated.
Are we physically stronger than the aliens? perhaps no; because technology brought about by the intelligence of man has rendered man lazy and physically non-powerful. The aliens might be lifting rocks of large mass that can kill homo sapiens while we homo sapiens would be lifting stones that would barely kill these aliens. One hand blow from an alien to the present man might take away his breath; our hands might be so weak and slow that it can not severely injure one of those aliens.
In Conclusion
The theory of evolution is so complex and questionable to some people. While some people believe it, some others don't. A time might come when homo sapiens might go into extinction just like the other human species due to natural forces or invasion of aliens to our planet earth. There is a tendency of extinction of homo sapiens, though not soon and might not even be in a thousand years to come. A day might come when another different specie would dominate the planet earth, excavate the skulls f homo sapiens and study it just as we(homo sapiens) study the ancestral human species that have gone into extinction.
Reference
- homo neanderthals and homo sapiens
- Extinction of homo erectus
- Homo species that existed on earth
- Laziness, a key factor to the extinction of homo erectus specie
- Human evolution at a glance
- Extinction of homo sapiens
- The homo species
- Aliens invading the earth
- The Evolution Theory, Charles Darwing's concept
- Extraterrestrial life; the existence of aliens
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Nice piece there bro.
Actually bro, for subjectivity, when you talk about the humans in this present time, using just the "Homo sapiens" may sound tricky, especially when you mention the Neanderthals as an independent species.
This is because, the Neanderthals are also subspecies of the Homo sapiens (Homo sapiens neanderthalensis), and they didn't evolve into the modern man. And there is also the Homo sapiens idaltu and some others.
Homo sapiens is "the thinking man". But if you want to refer to the modern man in this present time, it would be more elucidating to use "Homo sapien sapiens" - meaning; the subspecies of Homo sapiens in this present time.
Thanks for coming around bro. I appreciate.
Homo sapien sapiens; that's fantastic. I would employ your correction in my subsequent articles.
Regards.
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