THIS AIN’T ANCESTRY.COM

We are an advanced breed of monkey

on a minor planet

of a very average star.

Stephen Hawking

About 6 to 7 million years ago humans and chimpanzees diverged from an earlier primate ancestor, though we still share about 97% of our DNA with our chimp cousins.

Somewhere around 4 million years ago our pre-human ancestors became bipedal, and about 3.5 million years ago Australopithecus Afarensis became distinctly human. 

There were many evolutionary adaptions that developed and died out, but about 1.8 million years ago Homo erectus became identifiable with present day humans.

It was Homo erectus that left the cradle of Africa and spread through Asia and southern Europe. 

Evolutionary adaptations produced Homo Heidelbergensis and then Neanderthal and finally modern humans.   It is estimated that about 2.5% of the DNA of humans outside of Africa is Neanderthal. 

Human evolution is not only obvious from physical appearance and mobility, but also in brain development.

Over the course of human evolution three distinct brains emerged.   The oldest and most primitive is the brain stem and cerebellum (which turns out to be the main structure of the reptilian brain) which controls autonomic body functions.  The next layer of our brain to develop was the hippocampus and hypothalamus which records memories and experiences.  The final layer is the cerebrum that allows language and abstract thought. 

The brain is not static, but constantly rewires itself to adjust to new experiences and demands.  The human brain is even known to repair itself (rewire itself) to bypass effected neurons in stroke victims.

  

Time on an evolutionary scale is vast, and if we survive there is no reason to believe that ‘we’ are the final product of human evolution.  

The future of humans no longer depend on survival skills, size or wit.   We live in a society that services our needs.  We are less active and less imaginative.  We depend more and more on technology.

So what evolutionary changes in the human animal might we expect as people move from a world of personal interaction, required physical activity and survival demands to a virtual reality world of 24/7 TV, computers and cell phones?

Just wondering

the Ol’Buzzard

ALIENS – THE SPACE KIND

Today, two of the blogs that I follow made mention of aliens.   

The Brain Police posted a video about the Mormon religion and their belief that the human race was seeded by god/aliens from outer space. 

  

Then on Squatlo’s Rant, Squatlo  begged the question that if there are little grey (not green) men perhaps they are not an alien species, but the evolution of the human race many centuries into the future, traveling back in time to view their more primitive predecessors (being alien, male and human would account for their obsession for probing the sexual organs – vice cat scan.)

Just for the sake of the exercise there are scenarios that could fit this proposition. 

Einstein’s formula for light travel, posed that moving away from an object near the speed of light slows the time in the traveling object with respect to the relatively stationary object.

 

For physics nerds the formula is:  time change equals laps time on the traveling object (rocket,) divided by the square root of one minus the speed of the rocket (as percentage of the speed of light) squared, divided by the speed of light squared.

It works out that if a rocket were to travel from earth at eight tenths the speed of light, after thirty years aboard the rocket the earth and its people would have aged fifty years – the crew of the rocket returning to earth would have traveled twenty years into the future.

  

The closer to the speed of light traveled the more time slows aboard the rocket and speeds up on the earth.    This has been scientifically tested on a small scale and found to be correct.

So travel into the future is possible; but, not into the past – according to current theory.

  

However, who is to say that people of the future would not have found the key to time travel into the past… worm holes etc.

  

Now for the big headed, small bodied, large eyed aliens of science fiction

We can see a scenario where mankind of the present pushes the climate change past its tipping point – the ozone layer is depleted resulting in sun rays becoming deadly. 

Humans would have to become nocturnal and possibly subterranean dwellers.

Over the eons, through evolution, human bodies could become more fragile, eyes become larger and brain pans enlarge to house the advance brain functions necessary to devise technologies suited to the new environment.

If these humans traveled back in time to view us, their more primitive relatives, it could account for our obsession with ET and Paul.

Squatlo; I think you have a better argument than the Mormons.

I’m just saying

the Ol’Buzzard