Man in Perspective

Introduction

Increasing Sexiness

Sense of Time

Which Came First?

Why Bipedalism?

Some Comparisons

Politics

Trade

Conclusion

Early Man Quiz

Introduction

[Originally presented at the Bonkworld Lecture Series, August 16, 2000. Most of the content and all of the quoted material below has been culled from John Reader's "Africa: A Biography of the Continent."]

My lecture today will be very simple. I would mainly like to provide a sense of temporal perspective regarding the world and our place as humans in it. Everything we know of modern human history, by which I mean recorded history--the last 5 thousand years or so-- is essentially completely insignificant in terms of time, not only by comparison to the history of the planet or the universe, but also just by comparison to the history of human evolution. I'd like to do three things here this evening: 1) give a broad overview of the bare facts of evolution; 2) explain some of the likely driving forces behind our evolution; and 3) note a lesson or two from history that may be instructive for our future development.

I believe it is a worthwhile thing to develop and maintain a good sense of perspective so that we can appreciate the reality of our present situation as a species on the planet more accurately, and, if I may say so, more humbly. We like to think of ourselves as a highly successful species, having taken over the entire world and all. Yet the fact is that our catalog of accomplishments, and indeed our whole history as Homo sapiens, at some 130,000 years, pales beside the record of Homo Erectus, who kept going for 1 million, 400 thousand years, or Australopithecus, who enjoyed a solid 3 million years of success as a species.

Therefore I hope I can help to inspire a measure of awe and humility, and a recognition that our development thus far has been far from inevitable, and our continued survival far from assured. We are thus far only a tiny blip on the radar screen of primate evolution, and I daresay if we hope to create a record approaching that of our distinguished ancestors, we are going to have to change a few things about the way we do business.

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