Bad Astronomy and Universe Today Forum - View Single Post - Homosapien! Pandora's Box or Masterpiece?

Fadingstar · #1 (**permalink**) 31-May-2008, 11:18 PM

Is homosapien an evolutionary Pandora’s box? Or nature’s finest masterpiece?

Life mutates as it progresses through time via natural selection. Niches are filled, predators become better hunters, and prey becomes better at avoiding the predator.
Throughout the history of the earth, there has been no greater impact on the planet than that of homosapien.
If we go back to the time of the dinosaurs, we know that they lived on the planet for millions of years, yet they themselves did not affect the ecology of the planet in their entire existence as we have in less than two thousand years.
We are responsible for diminishing rain forests and other habitats, of pushing species to extinction in their hundreds, and, possibly, of having an impact on global warming.

The progress of homosapien seems to start with the introduction of grass and the reduction of forests that at one timed covered the planet around twenty million years ago.
The ape-like ancestor of humans then had to cross these large plains of open space to reach other trees in order to feed and expand. IIRC, the general consensus is that walking upright became a better way to cross these plains, if not for speed then for a better view of any predator approaching, and by this our ancestors were allowed to use hands for manipulation rather than for walking on.
This then required a larger brain for increased dexterity and control, which over the following millions of years ultimately led to the humans of today.

Yet now we are responsible for damage to the planet from many quarters. Whether it is technology, agriculture, industry, or humans own weapons of self-destruction, there are no doubts they we have played a huge part in the demise of many species and are pushing earth to breaking point.

The political or moral point of this is not the aim of this thread, but to wonder if evolution got it wrong.
Would it allow the creation of such a species to decimate the planet as we have done? Was it taken out of evolution’s hands the moment we began to walk upright and forced evolution upon ourselves? Are we its greatest creation that has yet to fulfill its true potential? Or is it just pure inevitability that us, or a species like us, would eventually be where we are today?

Inevitability would seem to be the right answer, but there has been no other species on this planet like us. We are unique to this world. And even dinosaurs in one form or another never even approached the complexities of a human being, and yet they had hundreds of millions of years to work at it.
Yes, we could say that the meteorite impact and the huge volcanic activity of the time pushed mammals ahead, but the evolutionary jump from instinct to reasoning must be the crux of the matter.

Of all the species that have come before us, we are the only ones that can now control our existence rather than existence control us. Be it disease, famine, predators, or earth’s own upheavals and climate changes we have overcome what it has thrown at us – but have we pushed beyond that which we were equipped for?
Has evolution met its match in homosapien? Or is it patting itself on the back?